piece

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See also: pièce

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English pece, peece, peice, from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia, pettia, possibly from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (“piece, portion, quota”); doublet of English fit, fytte, fytt (“musical piece, chapter”), Icelandic fit (“web”), German Fitze (“skein”), from Old High German *fitjâ. Compare Welsh peth, Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid. Compare French pièce, Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza, Italian pezza, Italian pezzo.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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piece (plural pieces)

  1. A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.
    Synonyms: component, part; see also Thesaurus:piece
    Near-synonyms: aspect, portion
    I’d like another piece of pie.
    I've lost a piece of this jigsaw puzzle.
  2. A single item belonging to a class of similar items.
    a piece of machinery
    a piece of software
    a useful piece of advice
    • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
      [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […]
  3. (chess) One of the figures used in playing chess, specifically a higher-value figure as distinguished from a pawn; by extension, a similar counter etc. in other games.
    Synonym: game piece
    • 1959, Hans Kmoch, Pawn Power in Chess, section I:
      Pawns, unlike pieces, move only in one direction: forward.
  4. A coin, especially one valued at less than the principal unit of currency.
    a sixpenny piece
  5. An artistic creation, such as a painting, sculpture, musical composition, literary work, etc.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:musical composition
    She played two beautiful pieces on the piano.
  6. An article published in the press.
    Today's paper has an interesting piece on medical research.
    • 1979, Woody Allen, Manhattan, spoken by Isaac Davis (Woody Allen):
      No, I didn't read the piece on China's faceless masses, I was, I was checking out the lingerie ads.
  7. (military) An artillery gun.
    • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar‎[1], London, page 55:
      […] all our Ammunition was spent. Those of us who had Money made Slugs of it; their next Shift was to take the middle Screws out of their Guns, and charge their Pieces with them.
  8. (US, colloquial) A gun.
    He's packin' a piece!
    • 2005, “Bloody War”, in Certified, performed by David Banner:
      I wanted peace, but now my piece is clearing out the block.
    • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 116:
      It was do or be done. Get or get gotten. It was self-preservation like I'd never felt before, and when Rome passed me his piece I didn't even hesitate as I raised that bitch in the air and aimed it at Vyreen.
    • 2008–2021, qntm, “We Need To Talk About Fifty-Five”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 9:
      "This is just a cover story," Clay says to O5-8, not taking his eyes off Marion. "It's a good one, but she's had it worked out in advance."
      "Clay, lose the piece," says the O5.
      Grudgingly, Clay does so.
  9. (US, Canada, colloquial, short for hairpiece) A toupee or wig, especially when worn by a man.
    The announcer is wearing a new piece.
  10. (Scotland, Ireland, UK, US, dialectal) A slice or other quantity of bread, eaten on its own; a sandwich or light snack.
    • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 46:
      My grannie came and gived them all a piece and jam and cups of water then I was to bring them back out to the street and play a game.
  11. (US, colloquial, vulgar) A sexual encounter; from piece of ass or piece of tail.
    I got a piece at lunchtime.
  12. (US, colloquial, mildly vulgar, short for piece of crap/piece of shit) A shoddy or worthless object (usually applied to consumer products like vehicles or appliances).
    Ugh, my new computer is such a piece. I'm taking it back to the store tomorrow.
  13. (US, slang) A cannabis pipe.
  14. (baseball, uncountable) Used to describe a pitch that has been hit but not well, usually either being caught by the opposing team or going foul. Usually used in the past tense with get.
    he got a piece of that one;  she got a piece of the ball […] and it's going foul.
  15. (dated, sometimes derogatory) An individual; a person.
  16. (obsolete) A castle; a fortified building.
  18. (US) A pacifier; a dummy.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pacifier
  19. (colloquial) A distance.
    a far piece
    located a fair piece away from their camp
    a fair piece off
  20. (rowing) A structured practice row, often used for performance evaluation.
    At practice we rowed four 5,000 meter pieces.
    That last piece was torture.
  21. An amount of work to be done at one time; a unit of piece work.
  22. (slang) An ounce of a recreational drug.
    • 2017, Matt Meyer, Déqui Kioni-Sadiki, Sekou Odinga, Look for Me in the Whirlwind:
      In fact, that was back during the era when you could buy a piece of heroin, an ounce of heroin, for $500 and cut it three times for a 3-to-1 cut on it and the dope would still be good.

Usage notes

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  • When used as a baseball term, the term is figurative in that the baseball is almost never broken into pieces. It is rare in modern baseball for the cover of a baseball to even partially tear loose. In professional baseball, several new, not previously played baseballs are used in each game. It could be argued that the phrase was never meant (not even metaphorically) to refer to breaking the ball into pieces, and that "get a piece of the ball" means the bat contacts only a small area of the ball - in other words, that the ball is hit off-center. In that case "get" would mean "succeed in hitting", not "obtain".

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Terms derived from piece (noun)

Descendants

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  • Belizean Creole: pees
  • Sranan Tongo: pisi
  • → Finnish: biisi
  • → Irish: píosa
  • → Japanese: ピース (pīsu)
  • → Scottish Gaelic: pìos

Translations

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article published in the press
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

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Chess pieces in English · chess pieces, chessmen (see also: chess) (layout · text)
♚ ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞ ♟
king queen rook, castle bishop knight pawn

Verb

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piece (third-person singular simple present pieces, present participle piecing, simple past and past participle pieced)

  1. (transitive, usually with together) To assemble (something real or figurative).
    These clues allowed us to piece together the solution to the mystery.
    • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
      His adversaries […] pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.
  2. To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out.
    to piece a garment
  3. (slang) To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag.
    • 1994, William Upski Wimsatt, Bomb the Suburbs, revised second edition, Chicago: The Subway and Elevated Press Company, →ISBN, page 7:
      “It didn't rain, so I decided to come piece with you. […] ” We never finished that piece.
    • 2009, Gregory J. Snyder, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground, page 40:
      It is incorrect to say that toys tag and masters piece; toys just do bad tags, bad throw-ups, and bad pieces.
    • 2009, Scape Martinez, GRAFF: The Art & Technique of Graffiti, page 124:
      It is often used to collect other writer's tags, and future plans for bombing and piecing.

Derived terms

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Terms derived from piece (verb)

Middle French

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Etymology

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From Old French piece, from Vulgar Latin *pettia, from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (“piece, portion”).

Noun

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piece f (plural pieces)

  1. piece, bit, part
  2. moment (duration of time)
    • 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 75:
      Grant piece dura celle meslee
      The battle lasted a long time

Descendants

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  • French: pièce (see there for further descendants)
  • Norman: pièche (Jersey)

References

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  • piece on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

Old French

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Late Latin pettia, from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (“piece, portion”).

Noun

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piece oblique singular, f (oblique plural pieces, nominative singular piece, nominative plural pieces)

  1. piece, bit, part

Descendants

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Polish

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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piece m inan

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of piec
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