piebald
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of piebald
Explanation
Use the adjective piebald to describe something that has different colored patches — especially black and white patches. If you own a piebald horse, you could name him Spot. The adjective piebald is a combination of pie and bald. Pie was the original name for magpie, a common European bird known for its black and white coloring. Bald did not mean "hairless," but referred to a white patch, especially on the head (think bald eagle). So something piebald has a combination of black and white coloring. It mostly refers to horses, although the word can be used to describe other multicolored things.
Vocabulary lists containing piebald
Animal Farm
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The Downstairs Girl
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The Graveyard Book
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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.
Connor has created a soft-focus community that reads like a contemporary Grover’s Corners with its quirky assortment of kind adults and its cozy woodland setting populated with songbirds and even a fabled piebald deer.
From New York Times • Feb. 11, 2022
In spite of honey-and-gold weather, only 26,623 of Ebbets Field’s 32,500 seats were occupied, and there were wide, piebald patches of untented pews in left field.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 31, 2019
Leucistic deer, also called piebald, have normal pigmented noses, hooves and eyes and can be everything from partly white to full-on white.
From Washington Times • Apr. 14, 2018
The moose wasn’t an albino either, according to National Geographic, but it had a partial form of leucism called piebald — where only specks of colors remain.
From The Verge • Sep. 17, 2017
The fool turned his patched and piebald head to watch Pylos climb the steep iron steps to the rookery.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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.
