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.
Pronunciation
- enPR: pēs, IPA(key): /piːs/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (file) - Rhymes: -iːs
- Homophone: peace
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.
- 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 55189476, lines 2–3; republished as Geoffrey Keynes, John Sparrow, editor, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions: […], Cambridge: At the University Press, 1923, OCLC 459265555, page 98:
- 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.
- She played two beautiful pieces on the piano.
- (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,
- […] 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,
- (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, Britain, 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) 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 got, and never used in the plural.
- 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.
- Sir Philip Sidney
- If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him.
- Shakespeare
- Thy mother was a piece of virtue.
- Coleridge
- His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world.
- Sir Philip Sidney
- (obsolete) A castle; a fortified building.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
- (US) A pacifier.
- (colloquial) A distance.
- a far piece
- located a fair piece away from their camp
- a fair piece off
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:piece
- See also Thesaurus:musical composition
Usage notes
When used as a baseball term, the term is idiomatic 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".
Derived terms
See also
Chess pieces in English · chess pieces, chessmen (see also: chess) (layout · text) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
king | queen | castle, rook | bishop | knight | pawn |
Translations
|
|
|
|
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
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.
- Fuller
- 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
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
- (slang) To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag.
- 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.
- 2009, Gregory J. Snyder, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground (page 40)
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)
Descendants
- French: pièce
Old French
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Late Latin pettia, from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷesdis (“piece, portion”).
Noun
piece 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.
Polish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpʲɛ.t͡sɛ/