<B>piece, </B>noun, verb, <B>pieced,</B> <B>piecing,</B> adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>one of the parts into which a thing is divided or broken; bit. <BR> <I>Ex. a piece of wood, to fall or cut to pieces. The cup broke into pieces.</I> (SYN) scrap, fragment. <DD><B> 2. </B>a limited part. <BR> <I>Ex. a piece of land containing two acres.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a small quantity; portion; part. <BR> <I>Ex. a piece of bread, a piece of paper.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>a single thing of a set or class. <BR> <I>Ex. a piece of furniture, a piece of luggage. This set of china has 144 pieces.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>a single composition in an art. <BR> <I>Ex. a new piece at a theater, a piece of music, a piece of poetry, to recite a piece. His pieces went over so well that he was offered sixty rubles a month to become a regular contributor (Edmund Wilson).</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>a coin. <BR> <I>Ex. pieces of eight. A nickel is a five-cent piece.</I> <DD><B> 7. </B>an example or instance of an action, function, or quality. <BR> <I>Ex. a piece of luck, a piece of news. Sleeping with the light on in the room is a piece of nonsense.</I> <DD><B> 8. </B>a quantity in which goods are put up for the market. <BR> <I>Ex. cloth, ribbon, or lace sold only by the piece.</I> <DD><B> 9. </B>the amount of work done or to be done at any one time. <BR> <I>Ex. to work by the piece, to be paid by the piece.</I> <DD><B> 10a. </B>a gun; cannon. <BR> <I>Ex. a fowling piece. Clean the piece after firing.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>(U.S. Slang.) a firearm, usually a pistol. <BR> <I>Ex. "Just having a piece doesn't cut the mustard," he continued (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 11a. </B>any one of the disks, cubes, figures, or stones, used in playing checkers, chess, and other games; man. <DD><B> b. </B>a superior man in chess, as distinguished from a pawn; a king, queen, bishop, knight, or rook. <DD><B> 12. </B>(U.S. Slang.) a woman or girl, especially thought of as a sex partner or sex object. <DD><B> 13. </B>(Dialect.) <DD><B> a. </B>a short period of time; while. <BR> <I>Ex. to sit and rest for a piece.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>a short distance. <BR> <I>Ex. down the road a piece.</I> <DD><B> 14. </B>(Obsolete.) an individual; person. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to make or repair by adding or joining pieces; patch. <BR> <I>Ex. to piece a dress. Mother pieced a quilt yesterday.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to join the pieces of; unite or put together in one piece. <BR> <I>Ex. (Figurative.) to piece together a story.</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>composed of pieces. <DD><B> 2. </B>having to do with piecework. <BR><I>expr. <B>go to pieces,</B> <DD><B> a. </B>to break into fragments; break up. </I> <I>Ex. Another ship had gone to pieces on the rocks.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to break down physically or mentally; collapse. <BR> <I>Ex. When his business failed, he went completely to pieces.</I> <DD><B> c. </B>to become disorganized or confused; fall apart. <BR> <I>Ex. Where the book goes to pieces is in its economic, social, and political history (New Scientist).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>of a piece,</B> </I>of the same kind; in keeping; uniform. <BR> <I>Ex. That plan is of a piece with the rest of his silly suggestions. His rusty and worn suit ... was of a piece with his uncarpeted room (Charles Reade). His face and body look all of a piece like some fabulous Humpty Dumpty (Harper's).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>piece of one's mind,</B> (Informal.) <DD><B> a. </B>a scolding. </I> <I>Ex. His mother gave him a piece of her mind for coming late again.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>a candid opinion. <BR> <I>Ex. He gave them a piece of his mind on the subject.</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>pick up the pieces,</B> </I>(Informal.) to restore order or normalcy; bring about a recovery. <BR> <I>Ex. After ... a revolt shattered the constitution he'd helped construct, he was being urged to step in again to help pick up the pieces (Maclean's).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>speak one's piece,</B> </I>to voice one's opinions. <BR> <I>Ex. I feel better after speaking my piece.</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>to pieces,</B> <DD><B> a. </B>to bits or fragments. </I> <I>Ex. to break a dish to pieces.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to a state of separation of the constituent parts, or apart. <BR> <I>Ex. to take a clock to pieces. Given these facts, his argument falls to pieces.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="piecederesistance">
<B>piece de resistance,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) <DD><B> 1. </B>the chief dish of a meal. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) the most important or outstanding item, in any collection, group, or series. <BR> <I>Ex. A table service for a party of four in the nursery is made of pliable, unbreakable plastic, and includes, as the piece de resistance, a Lazy Susan (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="piecedoccasion">
<B>piece d'occasion,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) <DD><B> 1. </B>a piece or work for a special occasion. <BR> <I>Ex. The work ... is certainly a piece d'occasion for this orchestra, who played it with tremendous verve and finish (London Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a bargain. </DL>
<A NAME="piecedyed">
<B>piece-dyed, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (of cloth) dyed in the piece, or after it is woven or knitted. </DL>
<A NAME="piecegoods">
<B>piece goods,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> cloth cut to measure and sold by the yard from bolts; yard goods. <BR> <I>Ex. Quietly steady conditions prevailed in the cotton piece goods market last week (Times of India).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="piecemeal">
<B>piecemeal, </B>adverb, adjective, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adv. </I> <B>1. </B>piece by piece; a little at a time. <BR> <I>Ex. work done piecemeal. In reality he has treated such problems piecemeal in various segments of the book (Bulletin of Atomic Scientists).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>piece from piece; to pieces; into fragments. <BR> <I>Ex. The lamb was torn piecemeal by the wolves.</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> done piece by piece; fragmentary. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to divide piecemeal; dismember. <BR> <I>Ex. They moved in slowly and gave the [enemy] a chance to piecemeal them (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pieceofcake">
<B>piece of cake,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Especially British Slang.) something sure and easy; a cinch. <BR> <I>Ex. "We don't pretend this is going to be a piece of cake for us, but I think we can do it," he said (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pieceofeight">
<B>piece of eight,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a former Spanish peso, worth 8 reals. It corresponded to the United States dollar. </DL>
<A NAME="piecer">
<B>piecer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who pieces or patches, especially one who joins broken threads together in a spinning mill. </DL>
<A NAME="piecerate">
<B>piece rate,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the rate of payment for piecework; payment by the amount or piece of work done, not by the time worked. </DL>
<A NAME="piecework">
<B>piecework, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> work paid for by the amount or piece of work done, not by the time it takes. </DL>
<A NAME="pieceworker">
<B>pieceworker, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who does piecework. </DL>
<A NAME="piechart">
<B>pie chart,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a graph in the form of a circle divided into sectors that resemble pieces of a pie, drawn to show the percentages into which any total sum is divided; circle graph. </DL>
<A NAME="piecrust">
<B>pie crust,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> pastry for the bottom or top of a pie. </DL>
<A NAME="piecrusttable">
<B>pie crust table,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a table having an ornamental edge suggesting the crust of a pie. </DL>
<A NAME="pied">
<B>pied, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>having patches of two or more colors; many-colored; parti-colored. <DD><B> 2. </B>spotted. <BR> <I>Ex. Daisies pied and violets blue (Shakespeare).</I> (SYN) dappled. <DD><B> 3. </B>wearing a costume of two or more colors. <BR> <I>Ex. The Pied Piper.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="piedaterre">
<B>pied-a-terre, </B>noun, pl. <B>pieds-a-terre,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) <DD><B> 1. </B>a temporary lodging. <BR> <I>Ex. In England most of the noblemen and nearly all the squires still regarded their London houses only as pieds-a-terre, and looked on their seats in the country as their real homes (Nikolaus Pevsner).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a foothold. <DD><B> 3. </B>(literally) foot on the ground. </DL>
<A NAME="piedbilledgrebe">
<B>pied-billed grebe,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a small North American grebe with a rounded bill, that lives in ponds and swamps. </DL>
<A NAME="piedfort">
<B>piedfort, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a coin struck on a blank of unusual thickness. </DL>
<A NAME="piedmont">
<B>piedmont, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a district lying along or near the foot of a mountain range. <DD><I>adj. </I> lying along or near the foot of a mountain range. <BR> <I>Ex. a piedmont plain, a piedmont glacier.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="piedmontese">
<B>Piedmontese, </B>adjective, noun, pl. <B>-tese.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> of or having to do with Piedmont, a region in northwestern Italy, or its people. <DD><I>noun </I> a native or inhabitant of Piedmont. </DL>
<A NAME="piednoir">
<B>pied noir, </B>pl. <B>pieds noirs.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) <DD><B> 1. </B>a North African, especially an Algerian, of European descent (used in an unfriendly way). <DD><B> 2. </B>(literally) black foot. </DL>
<A NAME="piedpiper">
<B>Pied Piper,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(in medieval legend) a magician who freed the town of Hamelin in Prussia from a plague of rats by playing on his pipe. When refused his promised reward, he led its children away. <DD><B> 2. </B>Also, <B>pied piper.</B> (Figurative.) a person who entices or misleads others. </DL>
<B>pie-faced, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having a round, expressionless face; moonfaced. </DL>
<A NAME="piefort">
<B>piefort, </B>noun. =piedfort.</DL>
<A NAME="piegan">
<B>Piegan, </B>noun, pl. <B>-gan</B> or <B>-gans.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a member of a tribe of Blackfoot Indians formerly inhabiting Alberta, Canada, and central Montana. <DD><B> 2. </B>the language of this tribe. </DL>
<A NAME="pieinthesky">
<B>pie in the sky,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> something pleasant but unattainable; impractical ideal. <BR> <I>Ex. Talk of economic growth to support a higher budget seems like pie in the sky to this Administration (Atlantic).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pieplant">
<B>pieplant, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) the common garden rhubarb, so called from its use in pies. </DL>
<A NAME="piepoudre">
<B>piepoudre</B> or <B>piepowder, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a traveling merchant or trader during the Middle Ages. In England a so-called Court of Piepoudre (or Piepowder) was held at fairs and markets to settle disputes among peddlers and local merchants. </DL>
