PIECE


Meaning of PIECE in English

transcription, транскрипция: [ pi:s ]

( pieces, piecing, pieced)

Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.

1.

A piece of something is an amount of it that has been broken off, torn off, or cut off.

...a piece of cake.

...a few words scrawled on a piece of paper...

Cut the ham into pieces...

Do you want another piece?

N-COUNT : usu N of n

2.

A piece of an object is one of the individual parts or sections which it is made of, especially a part that can be removed.

The equipment was taken down the shaft in pieces.

= bit

N-COUNT

3.

A piece of land is an area of land.

People struggle to get the best piece of land.

N-COUNT : usu N of n

4.

You can use piece of with many uncount nouns to refer to an individual thing of a particular kind. For example, you can refer to some advice as a piece of advice .

When I produced this piece of work, my lecturers were very critical...

...an interesting piece of information.

...a sturdy piece of furniture...

N-COUNT : N of n

5.

You can refer to an article in a newspaper or magazine, some music written by someone, a broadcast, or a play as a piece .

I disagree with Andrew Russell over his piece on British Rail.

N-COUNT

6.

You can refer to a work of art as a piece . ( FORMAL )

Each piece is unique, an exquisite painting of a real person, done on ivory...

N-COUNT

7.

You can refer to specific coins as pieces . For example, a 10p piece is a coin that is worth 10p.

N-COUNT : supp N

8.

The pieces which you use when you play a board game such as chess are the specially made objects which you move around on the board.

N-COUNT

9.

A piece of something is part of it or a share of it. ( AM )

They got a small piece of the net profits and a screen credit.

QUANT : QUANT of def-n

10.

see also museum piece , party piece , set piece

11.

If you give someone a piece of your mind , you tell them very clearly that you think they have behaved badly. ( INFORMAL )

How very thoughtless. I’ll give him a piece of my mind.

PHRASE : V inflects

12.

If something with several different parts is all of a piece , each part is consistent with the others. If one thing is of a piece with another, it is consistent with it.

At its peak in the Thirties, Underground design and architecture was all of a piece...

PHRASE : v-link PHR , oft PHR with n

13.

If someone or something is still in one piece after a dangerous journey or experience, they are safe and not damaged or hurt.

...providing that my brother gets back alive and in one piece from his mission.

= intact

PHRASE : v-link PHR , PHR after v

14.

You use to pieces in expressions such as ‘smash to pieces’, and mainly in British English ‘fall to pieces’ or ‘take something to pieces’, when you are describing how something is broken or comes apart so that it is in separate pieces.

If the shell had hit the boat, it would have blown it to pieces...

Do you wear your old clothes until they fall to pieces?

PHRASE : PHR after v

15.

If you go to pieces , you are so upset or nervous that you lose control of yourself and cannot do what you should do. ( INFORMAL )

She’s a strong woman, but she nearly went to pieces when Arnie died.

PHRASE : V inflects

16.

a piece of the action: see action

bits and pieces: see bit

a piece of cake: see cake

to pick up the pieces: see pick up

Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary.      Английский словарь Коллинз COBUILD для изучающих язык на продвинутом уровне.