pie1
- a baked food having a filling of fruit, meat, pudding, etc., prepared in a pastry-lined pan or dish and often topped with a pastry crust: apple pie; meat pie.
- a layer cake with a filling of custard, cream jelly, or the like: chocolate cream pie.
- a total or whole that can be divided: They want a bigger part of the profit pie.
- an activity or affair: He has his finger in the political pie too.
- pizza.
- easy as pie, extremely easy or simple.
- nice as pie, extremely well-behaved, agreeable, or the like: The children were nice as pie.
- pie in the sky,
- the illusory prospect of future benefits: Political promises are often pie in the sky.
- a state of perfect happiness; utopia: to promise pie in the sky.
Origin of pie1
pie2
Origin of pie2
pie3
- pi2.
pie4
or pye
- (in England before the Reformation) a book of ecclesiastical rules for finding the particulars of the service for the day.
Origin of pie4
pie5
- a former bronze coin of India, the 12th part of an anna.
Origin of pie5
PIE
pi2
or pie
- printing types mixed together indiscriminately.
- any confused mixture; jumble.
- to reduce (printing types) to a state of confusion.
- to jumble.
Origin of pi2
Examples from the Web for pie
Contemporary Examples
Not enough black films are being made to warrant a piece of the pie.
Ava DuVernay on ‘Selma,’ the Racist Sony Emails, and Making Golden Globes HistoryMarlow Stern
December 15, 2014
Think one small piece of pie or a half-cup of eggnog, says Zied, will do the trick.
Another vital way to expand the pie is to collaborate with industry partners.
The Latest in High-Tech ChipsSeptember 18, 2014
The, um, pie was expanding to be sure, but there were a lot more people angling to get a slice of it.
He shifts the lens from overall wealth (how big is the pie) to distribution (how big are the pieces).
Historical Examples
Remove from the fire and pour into the baked crust of a pie.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 4Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
The most popular form in which it is served is probably in pie.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 4Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
"Four hundred and twenty might be baked in that pie," she laughed.
Her Father's DaughterGene Stratton-Porter
She turned her back and slowly slid into the oven the pie she was carrying.
Her Father's DaughterGene Stratton-Porter
I was angry with the girl for putting her finger into our pie.
It Happened in EgyptC. N. Williamson
pie1
- a baked food consisting of a sweet or savoury filling in a pastry-lined dish, often covered with a pastry crust
- have a finger in the pie
- to have an interest in or take part in some activity
- to meddle or interfere
- pie in the sky illusory hope or promise of some future good; false optimism
Word Origin
pie2
- an archaic or dialect name for magpie
Word Origin
pie3
- printing a variant spelling of pi 2
pie4
- a very small former Indian coin worth one third of a pice
Word Origin
pie5
pye
- history a book for finding the Church service for any particular day
Word Origin
pie6
- be pie on NZ informal to be keen on
Word Origin
PI
- Philippine Islands
- private investigator
pi1
- the 16th letter in the Greek alphabet (Π, π), a consonant, transliterated as p
- maths a transcendental number, fundamental to mathematics, that is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Approximate value: 3.141 592…; symbol: π
Word Origin
pi2
pie
- a jumbled pile of printer's type
- a jumbled mixture
- to spill and mix (set type) indiscriminately
- to mix up
Word Origin
pi3
- British slang short for pious (def. 2), pious (def. 3)
Word Origin and History for pie
n.1
"pastry," mid-14c. (probably older; piehus "bakery" is attested from late 12c.), from Medieval Latin pie "meat or fish enclosed in pastry" (c.1300), perhaps related to Medieval Latin pia "pie, pastry," also possibly connected with pica "magpie" (see pie (n.2)) on notion of the bird's habit of collecting miscellaneous objects. Figurative of "something to be shared out" by 1967.
According to OED, not known outside English, except Gaelic pighe, which is from English. In the Middle Ages, a pie had many ingredients, a pastry but one. Fruit pies began to appear c.1600. Figurative sense of "something easy" is from 1889. Pie-eyed "drunk" is from 1904. Phrase pie in the sky is 1911, from Joe Hill's Wobbly parody of hymns. Pieman is not attested earlier than the nursery rhyme "Simple Simon" (c.1820). Pie chart is from 1922.
n.2
"magpie," mid-13c. (late 12c. as a surname), from Old French pie (13c.), from Latin pica "magpie" (see magpie). In 16c., a wily pie was a "cunning person."
pi
n.
Greek letter, from Hebrew, literally "little mouth." As the name of the mathematical constant, from 1841 in English, used in Latin 1748 by Swiss mathematician Leonhart Euler (1707-1783), as an abbreviation of Greek periphereia "periphery." For the meaning "printer's term for mixed type," see pie (3).
pi
(pī)- The 16th letter of the Greek alphabet.
pI
(pē′ī′)- The pH value for the isoelectric point of a given substance in solution.
pi
- An irrational number that has a numerical value of 3.14159265358979… and is represented by the symbol π. It expresses the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle and appears in many mathematical expressions.
pi
The irrational number obtained by dividing the length of the diameter of a circle into its circumference. Pi is approximately 3.1416. The sign for pi is π.
Idioms and Phrases with pie
pie
In addition to the idiom beginning with pie
- pie in the sky
also see:
- apple-pie order
- easy as pie
- eat crow (humble pie)
- finger in the pie
- slice of the pie