piece

[ pees ]
See synonyms for: piecepieces on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a separate or limited portion or quantity of something: a piece of land;a piece of chocolate.

  2. a quantity of some substance or material forming a single mass or body: a nice piece of lumber.

  1. a more or less definite portion or quantity of a whole: to cut a blueberry pie into six pieces.

  2. a particular length, as of certain goods prepared for the market: cloth sold by the piece.

  3. an amount of work forming a single job: to be paid by the piece and not by the hour.

  4. an example of workmanship, especially of artistic production, as a picture or a statue: The museum has some interesting pieces by Picasso.

  5. a literary or journalistic composition, usually short, in prose or verse.

  6. a literary selection for recitation: Each child had a chance to recite a piece.

  7. a musical composition.

  8. one of the parts that, when assembled, form a whole: the pieces of a clock.

  9. an individual article of a set or collection: a set of dishes containing 100 pieces.

  10. Games.

    • one of the figures, disks, blocks, or the like, of wood, plastic, ivory, or other material, used in playing a board game.

    • (in chess) a king, queen, bishop, knight, or rook; a superior man or figure, as distinguished from a pawn: One of the opening principles in chess is piece development.

  11. a token, charm, or amulet: a good-luck piece.

  12. an individual thing of a particular class or kind: a piece of furniture;a piece of drawing paper.

  13. an example, specimen, or instance of something: a fine piece of workmanship.

  14. one of the parts into which a thing is destructively divided or broken; a part, fragment, or shred: to tear a letter into pieces.

  15. Informal.

    • a rifle, pistol, or other small firearm.

    • a cannon or other unit of ordnance: Each field piece was drawn by six horses.

  16. a coin: a five-cent piece.

  17. Midland and Southern U.S. a distance: I'm going down the road a piece.

  18. Chiefly North Midland U.S. a snack.

  19. Also called piece of ass .Slang: Vulgar.

    • Usually Disparaging and Offensive. a person, usually a woman, considered as a sexual partner.

    • sexual intercourse: He's always looking for piece of ass.

verb (used with object),pieced, piec·ing.
  1. to mend (a garment, article, etc.) by adding, joining, or applying a piece or pieces; patch.

  2. to complete, enlarge, or extend by an added piece or something additional (often followed by out): to piece out a library with new books.

  1. to make by or as if by joining pieces (often followed by together): to piece a quilt;to piece together a musical program.

  2. to join together, as pieces or parts: to piece together the fragments of a broken dish.

  3. to join as a piece or addition to something: to piece new wire into the cable.

  4. to assemble into a meaningful whole by combining available facts, information, details, etc.: He pieced the story together after a lot of effort.

verb (used without object),pieced, piec·ing.
  1. Chiefly North Midland U.S. to eat small portions of food between meals; snack.

Idioms about piece

  1. give someone a piece of one's mind. mind (def. 39).

  2. go to pieces,

    • to break into fragments.

    • to lose control of oneself; become emotionally or physically upset: When he flunked out of medical school he went to pieces.

  1. of a piece, of the same kind; harmonious; consistent.: Also of one piece.

  2. piece of the action. action (def. 23).

  3. piece of work, an extraordinary person, especially one who has extremely negative qualities: She's a nasty piece of work!

  4. speak one's piece, to express one's opinion; reveal one's thoughts upon a subject: I decided to speak my piece whether they liked it or not.

Origin of piece

1
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English pece, pes(e), pesse, from Old French, from unattested Gaulish pettia; akin to Breton pez “piece,” Welsh, Cornish peth “thing”

synonym study For piece

1. See part.

usage note For piece

The meanings “sexual intercourse” and “sexual partner” are both vulgar slang. When referring to a person, the term piece is usually used with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting.

word story For piece

English piece comes from Middle English pece, peece, piece, from Anglo-French peece, pees, peice and Old French pece, pice. Other Western Romance languages share variations of the same word: Provençal pessa, pesa, Spanish pieza, Catalan peça, Portuguese peça, Italian pezza. These Romance forms correspond to Medieval Latin pecia, petia “a bit, portion, coin” (compare two bits , a dated American slang term for "twenty-five cents"). The Medieval Latin form has no Latin origin but probably originates in a Gaulish noun pettiā, which explains why there is no cognate word in Romanian ( piece in Romanian is bucată ).
The American colloquialism wanna get a piece of me? (a challenge to a fight) dates back to 1953; piece in the derogatory sense “girl or woman (regarded as a sex object)” dates back to the 16th century; piece of ass to 1857; and (nasty) piece of work dates from the 18th century.

Other words for piece

Opposites for piece

Other words from piece

  • mul·ti·piece, adjective
  • un·pieced, adjective

Words that may be confused with piece

Words Nearby piece

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use piece in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for piece

piece

/ (piːs) /


noun
  1. an amount or portion forming a separate mass or structure; bit: a piece of wood

  2. a small part, item, or amount forming part of a whole, esp when broken off or separated: a piece of bread

  1. a length by which a commodity is sold, esp cloth, wallpaper, etc

  2. an instance or occurrence: a piece of luck

  3. slang a girl or woman regarded as an object of sexual attraction: a nice piece

  4. an example or specimen of a style or type, such as an article of furniture: a beautiful piece of Dresden china

  5. informal an opinion or point of view: to state one's piece

  6. a literary, musical, or artistic composition

  7. a coin having a value as specified: fifty-pence piece

  8. a small object, often individually shaped and designed, used in playing certain games, esp board games: chess pieces

    • a firearm or cannon

    • (in combination): fowling-piece

  9. any chessman other than a pawn

  10. US and Canadian a short time or distance: down the road a piece

  11. Scot and English dialect

    • a slice of bread or a sandwich

    • a packed lunch taken to work, school, etc

  12. (usually plural) Australian and NZ fragments of fleece wool: See also oddment (def. 2)

  13. give someone a piece of one's mind informal to criticize or censure someone frankly or vehemently

  14. go to pieces

    • (of a person) to lose control of oneself; have a breakdown

    • (of a building, organization, etc) to disintegrate

  15. nasty piece of work British informal a cruel or mean person

  16. of a piece of the same kind; alike

  17. piece of cake informal something easily obtained or achieved

verb(tr)
  1. (often foll by together) to fit or assemble piece by piece

  2. (often foll by up) to patch or make up (a garment) by adding pieces

  1. textiles to join (broken threads) during spinning

Origin of piece

1
C13 pece, from Old French, of Gaulish origin; compare Breton pez piece, Welsh peth portion

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with piece

piece

In addition to the idioms beginning with piece

  • piece by piece
  • piece of ass
  • piece of cake
  • piece of change
  • piece of one's mind
  • piece of the action
  • piece together

also see:

  • all in one piece
  • conversation piece
  • go to pieces
  • museum piece
  • of a piece
  • pick apart (to pieces)
  • pick up the pieces
  • puff piece
  • say one's piece
  • think piece
  • thrill to pieces
  • to pieces
  • villain of the piece

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.