piece of eight
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of piece of eight
First recorded in 1600–10
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It was a Spanish piece of eight," said Historian Truman, "and it was thrown across the Rappahannock .
From Time Magazine Archive
A Spanish piece of eight, worth 4s. 6d.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher
The coin most commonly current was the Spanish piece of eight, but the system of weights and measures was the English system, and reckoning was by pounds, shillings, and pence.
From The History of Currency, 1252 to 1896 by William Arthur Shaw
The most probable is that it is a modification of the figure 8, denoting the famous "piece of eight" of pirate lore, a Spanish silver piece of the value of our dollar.
From Harper's Round Table, September 24, 1895 by Various
A piece of eight, then the principal coin in the Danish West Indies, was worth sixty-four cents.
From The Conqueror by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
