piece
Pluralpieces
Pluralpieces
- 1A part of a larger whole, usually shaped so that it can be separated from the other parts.
The puzzle was missing a single piece near the center.
He broke the chocolate bar into several pieces to share.
UsageSounds like peace. Common in cut into pieces, break into pieces, and in one piece (undamaged).
Note
A piece keeps its tie to the whole it came from: a slice of pie, a jigsaw shape, or, in John Donne's 1624 line, every man as "a peece of the Continent." Part can name any division; piece suggests one you could lift out.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The Donne passage was first published in 1624. en.wikisource.org
- Donne describes every man as a peece of the Continent. en.wikipedia.org
- 2A single item of a particular kind, including one item made as a unit of work for payment.
This piece of furniture matches the rest of the collection.
The collector owns several rare pieces from the same era.
UsageCounts nouns with no plural: a piece of advice (not
incorrect: an advice), two pieces of furniture.Note
In talk about objects for sale the noun can also stand alone, as in Norman Lindsay's Dust or Polish? (1950), where "the piece wasn't for sale."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Norman Lindsay wrote Dust or Polish?, published in 1950. en.wikipedia.org
- The quoted words occur in Dust or Polish?, in dialogue about an item for sale. en.m.wiktionary.org
- 3A single creative work, whether a painting or sculpture, a musical composition, or a written work.
The orchestra performed a challenging piece by a modern composer.
Critics praised the sculptor's latest piece at the gallery opening.
UsageOften a piece of music, a piece by a composer, a piano piece.
Similarcomposition
- 4
- 5To make, assemble, or mend something by joining pieces together or adding pieces, as in piecing together a story or piecing a quilt.
Working from scraps of her children's outgrown clothes, she pieced a quilt for her first grandchild.
Investigators worked to piece the events into a coherent account.
UsageUsually piece together: piece together the clues, piece the letter back together.
Similarassemble, patch, stitch, join, reconstruct
Note
Thomas Fuller's Church-history of Britain (1655) uses it reflexively, of enemies who "pieced themselves together" into a joint opposition.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Thomas Fuller wrote The Church-history of Britain, published in 1655. commons.wikimedia.org
- Fuller uses the reflexive wording of adversaries joining in opposition. en.m.wiktionary.org
- 6One of the figures used in chess, especially a higher-value figure rather than a pawn; by extension, the tokens used to play checkers, backgammon, and similar board games.
In chess, each piece moves according to its own rules.
He sacrificed a piece to gain a positional advantage.
Similarchessman
Note
Chess players use the word in two ways, and both appear in the official laws. The FIDE Laws of Chess speak of "the white pieces and pawns," and Hans Kmoch's Pawn Power in Chess (1959) rests on the contrast: "Pawns, unlike pieces, move only in one direction." In casual talk, and in checkers or backgammon, any token on the board counts.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- FIDE's laws use both senses: Article 2.2 includes pawns among the 16 pieces, while the algebraic-notation appendix distinguishes pieces from pawns. fide.com
- The FIDE Laws of Chess contain the quoted wording. fide.com
- Hans Kmoch wrote Pawn Power in Chess, published in 1959. openlibrary.org
- Kmoch contrasts pawns with pieces using the quoted words. en.m.wiktionary.org
- 7An artillery gun, such as a cannon or field gun used in warfare.
The battery fired every piece at the advancing column.
Crews cleaned their pieces between bombardments.
Note
Gunners count their weapons one by one, and each gun in a battery is a piece. The word reached smaller arms too: in Robert Drury's account of his adventures (1729), men short of ammunition "charge their Pieces" with screws taken from their guns. That general firearm use is close kin to the American slang for a handgun.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The account of Robert Drury's adventures was first published in 1729. collections.soane.org
- The account describes men exhausting their ammunition and charging their firearms with screws taken from their guns; “charge their Pieces” is authentic wording. en.m.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 8A firearm, especially a handgun carried on one's person.
He swore he never carried a piece on the job.
She pulled her piece the moment the door swung open.
UsageOften pack a piece or carry a piece.
Similargun, handgun, pistol, weapon
Note
Because it sounds exactly like peace, it invites puns. David Banner's "Bloody War" (2005) turns on the pair: a speaker who once wanted the one now uses the other, his weapon, to empty the neighborhood.
- 9A coin, particularly a coin of lower value than a country's main monetary unit.
The merchant counted out several silver pieces as change.
A single gold piece was worth a week's wages.
UsageUsually with a value or metal: a fifty-cent piece, a gold piece.
Similarcoin
- 10A musician or instrument counted as one member of a band or orchestra, chiefly after a number to say how big the ensemble is.
The club books a twelve-piece swing band every New Year's Eve.
The orchestra was cut to thirty pieces when the funding dried up.
UsageUsually a hyphenated number before band: a five-piece band (not
incorrect: a five-pieces band).Similarmember
- 11A shoddy or worthless object, especially a consumer product like a vehicle or appliance; a clipping of 'piece of crap.'
The mechanic shook his head and said the truck was a piece.
We got the used truck for almost nothing, and it turned out to be a total piece; the transmission died within a month.
Note
Here the dropped noun is crap or worse: a piece is what is left of piece of crap or piece of shit once the ending is swallowed. That makes it milder than the full phrase, though still vulgar.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- In this sense, piece is a shortening of piece of crap or piece of shit. en.m.wiktionary.org
- 12
- 13Partial or glancing contact with a pitched ball that fails to drive it well, often producing a foul ball or an easy out.
She got a piece of the curveball but lifted it for an easy out.
He got just a piece of the fastball, sending it foul down the line.
UsageAlmost always get a piece of the ball.
- 14A sexual encounter; a vulgar usage derived from 'piece of ass' or 'piece of tail.'
He spent all night at the bar trying to get a piece and went home alone.
After three months on the oil rig, all the guys could talk about was getting a piece when they got back to town.
Note
Vulgar American slang, clipped from piece of ass or piece of tail. The short form keeps all the coarseness of the full phrases and reduces a person or an encounter to an object. It belongs only among the most casual company. The same trick of dropping the rude noun produces the word for a shoddy gadget.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The sexual sense is clipped from piece of ass or piece of tail. en.m.wiktionary.org
- The sense meaning a shoddy gadget likewise shortens a phrase by omitting its vulgar noun. en.m.wiktionary.org
- 15A quantity equal to one ounce of a recreational drug.
He couldn't afford a whole piece, so he and two friends pooled their money and split the ounce three ways.
Prosecutors said he was moving four pieces of heroin a week, a quarter pound in all, out of a rented garage.
Similarounce
Note
Drug-trade slang in which a piece is a fixed weight of one ounce. The 2017 expanded edition of Look for Me in the Whirlwind, edited by Matt Meyer and déqui kioni-sadiki, glosses it in passing: "a piece of heroin, an ounce of heroin, for $500." Like other trade units, it takes of plus the drug. Keep it apart from the cannabis pipe.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Piece can denote one ounce of a recreational drug. en.m.wiktionary.org
- The original collective autobiography appeared in 1971; 2017 dates the expanded reprint. Open Library identifies the 1971 Random House edition as the first edition; its title page could not be inspected. openlibrary.org
- Meyer and déqui kioni-sadiki edited the expanded edition. The publisher lists Sekou Odinga, Dhoruba Bin Wahad and Jamal Joseph as authors and identifies the original work as the New York Panther 21's collective autobiography. pmpress.org
- The quoted wording appears in the book. en.m.wiktionary.org
- 16A handheld pipe used for smoking cannabis.
He cleaned the resin out of his glass piece before refilling the bowl.
They passed the piece around the circle, packing it again each time.
Similarpipe
Note
US slang from cannabis culture, where the word names the pipe itself. It shares its setting with the ounce of drug-trade talk, and only context keeps it apart from the slang word for a gun. Outside that circle, pipe is the plain term.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Piece is US slang for a cannabis pipe. en.m.wiktionary.org
- Piece also means an ounce of a recreational drug. en.m.wiktionary.org
- Piece is also slang for a gun. en.m.wiktionary.org
- Pipe can refer to a tobacco pipe or other smoking implements; cannabis pipe is the unambiguous term here. en.wikipedia.org
- 17
- 18A person, especially one regarded with contempt or dismissal.
"She's a forward piece and will come to no good," the housekeeper muttered as the new governess swept past.
Everyone in the village knew her as a scheming piece.
Note
Older English could use the word for a person without any sneer. Shakespeare's Tempest has "Thy mother was a piece of virtue," and Philip Sidney calls himself "a piece of a logician." A later line about a man's spirit, "as unsettled a piece as is in all the world," leans toward criticism. The contempt is only sometimes present, so the adjective in front usually decides whether it stings. Either way it now sounds dated.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Earlier English could use 'piece' of a person without contempt. folger.edu
- Shakespeare's The Tempest contains the quoted words, spoken by Prospero to Miranda. folger.edu
- Philip Sidney describes himself as 'a piece of a logician'. gutenberg.org
- The passage reads 'as unsettled a piece as is in all the world', without 'there'. It describes a man's spirit. It appears under 'Leighton' in Coleridge's Aids to Reflection. gutenberg.org
- 19A bit of bread, such as a slice, eaten by itself, or a sandwich or other light snack.
The workers took their pieces outside to eat during the break.
She spread thick butter on a piece for the hungry boy.
UsageOften a jam piece or a piece and jam.
Note
Dialect English in Scotland, Ireland and parts of Britain and the US uses the word for bread as a snack. A piece is what you hand a hungry child. It combines directly with the spread, so a piece and jam is bread with jam on it, as in James Kelman's Kieron Smith, Boy (2008).
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- James Kelman wrote Kieron Smith, Boy, first published in 2008. en.wikipedia.org
- 'A piece and jam' occurs in Kieron Smith, Boy as an example of the bread or snack sense. en.m.wiktionary.org
- 20To eat small amounts of food between meals; to snack or nibble.
Grandpa would piece all morning rather than sit down to a real meal.
Do not piece between meals.
c. 1950, Kansas State Board of Health, Division of Maternal and Child Health Nutrition Service publicationNote
An American dialect verb, chiefly North Midland and now dated, that often takes on. Eudora Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O." (1941) has a man "piecing on the ham." Mid-century health advice treated it as plain household English: "Do not piece between meals," warned the Kansas State Board of Health. Today snack or nibble does the job.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The snacking verb is American regional English, chiefly North Midland, and often takes on. en.m.wiktionary.org
- Eudora Welty wrote Why I Live at the P.O., first published in 1941. en.wikipedia.org
- The story describes a man, Uncle Rondo, as piecing on the ham; these are the narrator's words. files.eric.ed.gov
- Mid-century advice issued by the Kansas State Board of Health said exactly 'Do not piece between meals.' Wiktionary identifies the publication as Proper food before the baby comes, circa 1950, page 2. en.m.wiktionary.org
- 21To create a work of graffiti more elaborate than a simple tag.
He spent most nights piecing freight trains in the rail yard, covering whole cars in bright, interlocking letters.
Writers who piece illegally still risk heavy fines.
Note
Graffiti writers turn the noun into a verb: a piece, short for masterpiece, is an elaborate composition, and to piece is to make one, as opposed to a quick tag. Gregory J. Snyder's Graffiti Lives (2009) insists the difference is form, not skill. Saying "toys tag and masters piece" is wrong, he argues, because beginners make bad pieces too. Piecing and bombing sit side by side in writers' talk.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The graffiti noun piece is short for masterpiece; the corresponding verb means to create a piece. sunsite.icm.edu.pl
- Gregory J. Snyder wrote Graffiti Lives, first published in 2009. nyupress.org
- Snyder rejects the assertion that toys tag and masters piece, explaining that beginners also make pieces; the distinction concerns form rather than skill. en.m.wiktionary.org
- 22
- 23A structured practice row, often used to evaluate a crew's performance.
The eight rowed a twenty-minute piece at race pace.
Coaches compared each rower's splits across several pieces.
Note
Rowers count their training this way: a piece is one timed or measured effort within a session, so a crew rows "four 5,000 meter pieces" and compares them. The word usually takes a distance or a time in front of it. The hard pieces are remembered one by one, as in "That last piece was torture."
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- A rowing piece is a training effort measured by distance or time. rowpnra.org
- The quoted example of four 5,000-meter pieces is attested as an illustrative example. en.m.wiktionary.org
- The final quotation is attested as an illustrative example. en.m.wiktionary.org
- 24A castle or other fortified building, especially a stronghold.
the ranſack of that peece
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneNote
A sixteenth-century word for a stronghold, now obsolete. It could be paired with hold, as in Richard Grafton's Chronicle of 1569: "all the holdes and peeces." Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590) speaks of "the ransack of that peece." The spelling peece is the period form. Modern writers say fortress or castle, and the sense is one to recognize in reading rather than revive.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- The stronghold sense was used in the sixteenth century. talus.artsci.wustl.edu
- The castle or fortified-building sense is obsolete. en.m.wiktionary.org
- Richard Grafton's Chronicle contains the quoted words. en.m.wiktionary.org
- The cited first volume of Grafton's Chronicle was published in 1569. schulichwoolf.omeka.net
- Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, first published in 1590. themorgan.org
- The quoted phrase occurs in the 1590 text of The Faerie Queene. talus.artsci.wustl.edu
- Peece is an attested period spelling. talus.artsci.wustl.edu
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
The word came from Middle English pece, from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia. It possibly goes back to a Gaulish word from Proto-Celtic meaning "piece" or "portion." It is related to French pièce, Spanish pieza, and Italian pezzo.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- English piece descends from Middle English pece, borrowed from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia (also pettia). en.wiktionary.org
- The possible earlier source is a Gaulish word derived from Proto-Celtic meaning piece or portion. en.wiktionary.org
- French pièce shares its origin. en.wiktionary.org
- Spanish pieza shares its origin. en.wiktionary.org
- Italian pezzo shares its origin. en.wiktionary.org