pied
- having patches of two or more colors, as various birds and other animals: a pied horse.
- wearing pied clothing.
Origin of pied
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
pie3
- pi2.
à pied
- afoot; walking; on foot.
Examples from the Web for pied
Contemporary Examples
People are still far more likely to buy a million dollar pied à terre in Manhattan than to do so in Oklahoma City.
He was the Pied Piper of life and brought joy to everyone he knew.
Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh are the Pied Pipers of the Republican Party.
In 1977, gay-rights opponent Anita Bryant was pied in the face by gay-rights activists at a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa.
Unfortunately, such considerations of purpose tend to be drowned out by the alluring, sweet-sounding tune of a pied piper.
Historical Examples
"It was a good hostel, that of the 'Pied Merlin,'" he remarked.
The White CompanyArthur Conan Doyle
The music of the pied piper was still in his ears; twisting his brain.
Garrison's FinishW. B. M. Ferguson
He wanted to go out and get pied; but when I told him about his boy, he begun to cry.
We had told our two boatmen to pull us out to the Pied Witch!
Villa Rubein and Other StoriesJohn Galsworthy
The Himalayan pied kingfisher (Ceryle lugubris) is a bird as large as a crow.
Birds of the Indian HillsDouglas Dewar
pied
- having markings of two or more colours
Word Origin
à pied
- (postpositive) on foot
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)
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
Word Origin and History for pied
adj.
late 14c., as if it were the past participle of a verb form of Middle English noun pie "magpie" (see pie (n.2)), in reference to the bird's black and white plumage. Earliest use is in reference to the pyed freres, an order of friars who wore black and white. Also in pied piper (1845, in Browning's poem based on the German legend; used allusively by 1939).
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).
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.
pie
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."
pie
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 pied
pie
In addition to the idiom beginning with pie
also see: