DictionaryAI

pied

USPYD/paɪd/

3 meanings of pied

Practice

  1. 1
    colored patchesadjective
    Marked or colored in patches of two or more colors, especially black and white.

    The pied cattle grazing on the hillside stood out sharply against the green grass.

    The jester's pied costume, half red and half yellow, made the children laugh.

    Similarpiebald, particoloured, bicolor

    Note

    The adjective is named for a bird: pie was an old word for the magpie, taken from Old French and ultimately from Latin pica, and the magpie's black-and-white plumage is the pattern it fits best. Like piebald and particolored, it describes cattle, birds and a jester's motley alike, and it compares with more and most: more pied, most pied.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The adjective pied derives from archaic pie, meaning magpie, through Old French pie from Latin pica. en.wiktionary.org
    • The magpie has black-and-white plumage. en.wikipedia.org
  2. 2
    cream attackverb
    Simple past and past participle of pie.

    An activist pied the CEO as he walked onstage to give his keynote.

    The officers pied the corner slowly, clearing the hallway before they moved in.

    Note

    Three very different uses share this past form. Protesters who pied a speaker hit him in the face with a pie, for laughs or for a cause; officers who pied a corner edged around it with care; and in British slang, someone who has been pied has been ignored. The printing use belongs with the type-spilling verb.

Less common meaning

  1. 3
    verb
    Simple past and past participle of pi.

pied is a form of pie

pie, verb: To hit someone in the face with a pie, as a joke or as a form of protest. Full entry

Forms
piepies he/she/itpieing -ing formpied past tense, past participle
Spelling
pie → pied: add -d
Sound
The ending sounds like /d/.

Use it in a sentence

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Origins

Meaning 1

From the archaic word pie ("magpie"), from Old French pie, from Latin pica. Polish srokaty, from sroka, was formed in the same way.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

  • The adjective pied derives from archaic pie, meaning magpie, through Old French pie from Latin pica. en.wiktionary.org
  • Polish srokaty derives from sroka. en.wiktionary.org
  • Polish sroka means magpie, making srokaty a parallel formation from a bird name. en.wiktionary.org
Meaning 2

Formed from the verb pie, with the past ending -d.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts