- a sudden downpour or, more generally, any sudden soaking. This onomatopoeic word could be applied a to solid sheet of rain that disnae tak time tae come doon. There was a plype o’ rain falling at the time. (Lord Ernest Hamilton The Outlaws of the Marches 1897).
However, a plype can on occasion be welcome: Cheese an’ breed washen doon wi plipes o' caal watter (William Milne Eppie Elrick 1955).