PIECE


Meaning of PIECE in English

I. ˈpēs noun

( -s )

Etymology: Middle English pece, piece, from Old French, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin pettia, from (assumed) Gaulish; akin to Breton pez piece, Welsh peth part, thing, Old Irish cuit part

1. : a part of a whole : fragment , portion

the besieging forces would try to mine under a piece of wall — Tom Wintringham

2.

a. obsolete : man — usually used disparagingly

b. : girl , woman , baggage

3. : an object or individual regarded as a unit of a kind or class : example

handsome teak tables copied … from antique pieces — New Yorker

each piece of ripe fruit … has to be picked by hand — Sat. Eve. Post

as

a. : a person exemplifying a particular quality

thy mother was a piece of virtue — Shakespeare

b. : a period of time especially if brief

sat thinking for a piece

c. : an interval of space regarded as part of a longer distance

had gone a fair piece of the way — A.J.Liebling

d. : an individual instance or specimen

a piece of impudence

a piece of news

4.

a. : a length varying from 40 to 120 yards of cloth suitable for processing and especially for dyeing and finishing

b. archaic : a standard or customary quantity or length of merchandise (as wallpaper, wine) made up for sale or use

c. : a pair, block, strip, or sheet of stamps or a single stamp considered as a single unit for sale as philatelic material

5. : a product of creative work: as

a. : a literary composition

a collection of mostly out-of-the-way pieces — a biography, a fictional biography, horror stories, adventure stories, and long short stories — Saturday Review

b. : a product of graphic or plastic art : painting , picture , sculpture

images of the Buddha are made to certain conventional patterns and there is often great difficulty in determining the origin of any piece on stylistic grounds — C.P.Fitzgerald

c. : a theatrical production : drama , play

the series of psychological pieces — Leslie Rees

d. : a musical composition

has played four American pieces in a row — Virgil Thomson

e. : a passage to be recited : declamation

spoke his piece at the school graduation

6. : a projectile weapon (as a rifle, revolver, or artillery big gun)

ceased to debate the question of his piece being loaded — Stephen Crane

7.

a. : a coin of a specified metal

gold piece

piece of silver

or denomination

shilling piece

10-cent piece

b. obsolete : any of several 17th and early 18th century English gold coins (as the unite, sovereign, or guinea)

c. : token , counter

good-luck piece

8. chiefly dialect : a light simple lunch especially when not eaten as a regular meal

a piece in our pockets, so that mealtimes didn't matter — Margaret Aitken

9. obsolete : a fortified city or other stronghold

10. : a strip of leather inserted in a panel or affixed between bands on the backbone of a book and lettered

11. : floor 10

12.

a. : a man used in playing a board game ; specifically : any of the 16 chessmen of superior rank as distinguished from the pawns — see bishop , king , knight , queen , rook

b. slang : playing card

a piece of trump

13. : log 1a

14. : a chunk of whole blubber

15. pieces plural : portions picked out of the skirtings as suitable to be included with better grade wools

16. archaic : an inferior crystallized sugar obtained as one of the products of a now obsolete manufacturing process

17. : opinion , viewpoint , mind

you have to know your piece to get by them — H.J.Laski

just about every accredited Republican spokesman has said his piece — R.H.Rovere

18.

a. : an act of copulation — usually considered vulgar

b. : a partner in sexual intercourse — usually considered vulgar

19. : something composed of a specified material

fur piece

floral piece

20. : part ownership of an enterprise or property

had a piece of a nearby automobile dealership

Synonyms: see part

- by the piece

- of a piece

- on piece

- piece of one's mind

- to pieces

II. verb

( -ed/-ing/-s )

Etymology: Middle English pecen, from pece piece, noun

transitive verb

1. : to repair, renew, or complete by adding pieces : patch

pieced from scrap a locomotive — A.F.Harlow

pieced out a set of china

2. : to join into a whole : unite the parts of : combine out of pieces

had been piecing a quilt all afternoon

— often used with together

his new book … has been pieced together from talks — Merle Miller

3.

a. : foot 8

piece an arrow

b. : to splice (a stele) with other wood

c. : to splice (new wood) in a bow where a defect has been cut out

intransitive verb

1. obsolete : to come or fit together : coalesce from parts : agree , assemble

2. chiefly dialect : to eat between meals : nibble at snacks

there he was, piecing on the ham — Eudora Welty

3. : to join broken threads, slivers, or rovings in spinning or other textile manufacturing operations

- piece up

III. noun

- piece of the action

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.