pied piper

noun

variants often Pied Piper

1

: one that offers strong but delusive enticement

2

: a leader who makes irresponsible promises

3

: a charismatic person who attracts followers

Examples of pied piper in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The town also has a pied piper of the purity police (Ana Gasteyer, in peak form) and a light-in-his-loafers mayor (Brad Oscar), who has a conveniently daft wife (Ann Harada, reprising her role from the series). — Naveen Kumar, Variety, 21 Apr. 2026

Helping one family turned into helping hundreds, and along the way Biffle became something of a pied piper to other people who owned helicopters and wanted to help. — Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 18 Dec. 2025

Natalie Diaz is the pied piper of twin families around the globe. — Kimberly Zapata, Parents, 22 May 2025

And there is nobody better on that than Alex Cooper, who is sort of like the pied piper for millennial women. — Josef Adalian, Vulture, 2 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

the Pied Piper, hero of a German folktale who charmed the rats of Hameln, Germany, into a river

First Known Use

1869, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for pied piper

• sandpiper
• diaper
• hyper
• riper
• sniper
• viper
• wiper