piece
English
Alternative forms
- peece (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English pece, peece, peice, from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia, pettia, possibly from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷesdis (“piece, portion”); doublet of English fit, fytte, fytt (“musical piece, chapter”), Icelandic fit (“web”), German Fitze (“skein”), from Old High German *fitjâ. Compare Welsh peth, Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid. Compare French pièce, Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza, Italian pezza, Italian pezzo.
Pronunciation
Noun
piece (plural pieces)
- A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.
- I’d like another piece of pie.
- I've lost a piece of this jigsaw puzzle.
- 1624, John Donne, “17. Meditation”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: Printed by A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC; republished as Geoffrey Keynes, edited by John Sparrow, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions: […], Cambridge: At the University Press, 1923, →OCLC, page 98, lines 2–3:
- No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; […]
- A single item belonging to a class of similar items.
- a piece of machinery
- a piece of software
- a useful piece of advice
- 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […]
- (chess) One of the figures used in playing chess, specifically a higher-value figure as distinguished from a pawn; by extension, a similar counter etc. in other games.
- 1959, Hans Kmoch, Pawn Power in Chess, I:
- Pawns, unlike pieces, move only in one direction: forward.
- 1959, Hans Kmoch, Pawn Power in Chess, I:
- A coin, especially one valued at less than the principal unit of currency.
- a sixpenny piece
- An artistic creation, such as a painting, sculpture, musical composition, literary work, etc.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:musical composition
- She played two beautiful pieces on the piano.
- An article published in the press.
- Today's paper has an interesting piece on medical research.
- 1979, Woody Allen, Manhattan, spoken by Isaac Davis (Woody Allen):
- No, I didn't read the piece on China's faceless masses, I was, I was checking out the lingerie ads.
- (military) An artillery gun.
- 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 55,[1]
- […] all our Ammunition was spent. Those of us who had Money made Slugs of it; their next Shift was to take the middle Screws out of their Guns, and charge their Pieces with them.
- 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 55,[1]
- (US, colloquial) A gun.
- He's packin' a piece!
- 2005, “Bloody War”, in Certified, performed by David Banner:
- I wanted peace, but now my piece is clearing out the block.
- (US, Canada, colloquial, short for hairpiece) A toupee or wig, especially when worn by a man.
- The announcer is wearing a new piece.
- (Scotland, Ireland, UK, US, dialectal) A slice or other quantity of bread, eaten on its own; a sandwich or light snack.
- 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, page 46:
- My grannie came and gived them all a piece and jam and cups of water then I was to bring them back out to the street and play a game.
- 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, page 46:
- (US, colloquial, vulgar) A sexual encounter; from piece of ass or piece of tail.
- I got a piece at lunchtime.
- (US, colloquial, mildly vulgar, short for piece of crap/piece of shit) A shoddy or worthless object (usually applied to consumer products like vehicles or appliances).
- Ugh, my new computer is such a piece. I'm taking it back to the store tomorrow.
- (US, slang) A cannabis pipe.
- (baseball, uncountable) Used to describe a pitch that has been hit but not well, usually either being caught by the opposing team or going foul. Usually used in the past tense with get.
- he got a piece of that one; she got a piece of the ball […] and it's going foul.
- (dated, sometimes derogatory) An individual; a person.
- a. 1587 (date written), Phillip Sidney [i.e., Philip Sidney], An Apologie for Poetrie. […], London: […] [James Roberts] for Henry Olney, […], published 1595, →OCLC; republished as Edward Arber, editor, An Apologie for Poetrie (English Reprints), London: [Alexander Murray & Son], 1 April 1868, →OCLC:
- If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
- Thy mother was a piece of virtue.
- 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aid to Reflection
- His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world.
- (obsolete) A castle; a fortified building.
- 1569, Richard Grafton, A Chronicle at Large and Meere History of the Affayres of Englande […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Henry Denham, […], for Richarde Tottle and Humffrey Toye, →OCLC:
- He receyued againe all the holdes and peeces which his father had lost.
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 828: Parameter "passsage" is not used by this template.
- (US) A pacifier; a dummy.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pacifier
- (colloquial) A distance.
- a far piece
- located a fair piece away from their camp
- a fair piece off
- (rowing) A structured practice row, often used for performance evaluation.
- At practice we rowed four 5,000 meter pieces.
- That last piece was torture.
- An amount of work to be done at one time; a unit of piece work.
- (slang) An ounce of a recreational drug.
- 2017, Matt Meyer, Déqui Kioni-Sadiki, Sekou Odinga, Look for Me in the Whirlwind
- In fact, that was back during the era when you could buy a piece of heroin, an ounce of heroin, for $500 and cut it three times for a 3-to-1 cut on it and the dope would still be good.
- 2017, Matt Meyer, Déqui Kioni-Sadiki, Sekou Odinga, Look for Me in the Whirlwind
Usage notes
When used as a baseball term, the term is figurative in that the baseball is almost never broken into pieces. It is rare in modern baseball for the cover of a baseball to even partially tear loose. In professional baseball, several new, not previously played baseballs are used in each game.
It could be argued that the phrase was never meant (not even metaphorically) to refer to breaking the ball into pieces, and that "get a piece of the ball" means the bat contacts only a small area of the ball - in other words, that the ball is hit off-center. In that case "get" would mean "succeed in hitting", not "obtain".
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:piece
Derived terms
- afterpiece
- altarpiece
- apiece
- backpiece
- bailpiece
- battle piece
- bits and pieces
- broadpiece
- by the piece
- centrepiece
- cheekpiece
- chess piece
- chimneypiece
- codpiece
- conversation piece
- crosspiece
- crown piece
- earpiece
- end piece
- eyepiece
- fashion piece
- fieldpiece
- fowling piece
- frontipiece
- furpiece
- give someone a piece of one's mind
- gold piece
- go to pieces
- hairpiece
- headpiece
- heelpiece
- hit piece
- H-piece
- kneepiece
- mantelpiece
- masking piece
- masterpiece
- minor piece
- mistresspiece
- museum piece
- neckpiece
- nosepiece
- of a piece
- one-piece
- opinion piece
- party piece
- period piece
- piece bag
- piece-dye
- pieceless
- piecemeal
- piecen
- piece of ass
- piece of cake
- piece of clothing
- piece of crap
- piece of crumpet
- piece of eight
- piece of furniture
- piece of garbage
- piece of ground
- piece of meat
- piece of paper
- piece of piss
- piece of pork
- piece of shit
- piece of tail
- piece of the action
- piece of the pie
- piece of trash
- piece of work
- piece rate
- piece to camera
- piecewise
- piece work
- piecework
- pole piece
- puff piece
- return piece
- say one's piece
- sea piece
- set piece
- showpiece
- sidepiece
- side piece
- siege piece
- Staunton piece
- straining piece
- stringpiece
- tailpiece
- think piece
- three-piece suit
- three-piece suite
- timepiece
- top piece
- T-piece
- two-piece
- workpiece
Descendants
Translations
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See also
Chess pieces in English · chess pieces, chessmen (see also: chess) (layout · text) | |||||
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king | queen | rook, castle | bishop | knight | pawn |
Verb
piece (third-person singular simple present pieces, present participle piecing, simple past and past participle pieced)
- (transitive, usually with together) To assemble (something real or figurative).
- These clues allowed us to piece together the solution to the mystery.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
- His adversaries […] pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.
- To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out.
- to piece a garment
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- You have broke it, cousin: and , by my life , you shall make it whole again ; you shall piece it out with a piece of your performance
- (slang) To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag.
- 1994, William Upski Wimsatt, Bomb the Suburbs, revised second edition, Chicago: The Subway and Elevated Press Company, →ISBN, page 7:
- “It didn't rain, so I decided to come piece with you. […] ” We never finished that piece.
- 2009, Gregory J. Snyder, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground, page 40:
- It is incorrect to say that toys tag and masters piece; toys just do bad tags, bad throw-ups, and bad pieces.
- 2009, Scape Martinez, GRAFF: The Art & Technique of Graffiti, page 124:
- It is often used to collect other writer's tags, and future plans for bombing and piecing.
Derived terms
Middle French
Etymology
From Old French piece, from Vulgar Latin *pettia, from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷesdis (“piece, portion”).
Noun
piece f (plural pieces)
- piece, bit, part
- moment (duration of time)
- 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 75:
- Grant piece dura celle meslee
- The battle lasted a long time
Descendants
References
- piece on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)
Old French
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 2 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "LL" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E., from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷesdis (“piece, portion”).
Noun
piece oblique singular, f (oblique plural pieces, nominative singular piece, nominative plural pieces)
- piece, bit, part
- circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:
- Que del hiaume une piece tranche.
- It cuts a piece off his helmet
- Que del hiaume une piece tranche.
- circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:
Descendants
- Middle French: piece
- Walloon: pîce
- → Middle English: pece, pese, pesse, peace, pease, peise, pice, pise, piece, piese, pecche
Polish
Pronunciation
Noun
piece m inan
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