pies

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of pie.

   The bakery sells meat pies on weekdays and fruit pies on weekends.

   Students paid a dollar each to throw cream pies at their teachers for charity.

   Note

   What a plate of pies brings to mind depends on the side of the Atlantic: savory pies are the more familiar kind in the UK, sweet ones in the US, so the unqualified word suggests meat to one reader and fruit to another. In the Northeastern US the plural can also mean pizzas, and pies thrown for charity are plates of cream or custard.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of pie.

   At every rally, one protester pies a politician to get on the evening news.

   The comedian pies his co-host at the end of every show.

   Note

   Each of the verb's uses takes an object: a face that gets a pie, a corner taken in a guarded manner, or, in British slang, someone being ignored, as in my mate pies me whenever I ask. The slang one belongs to casual talk among friends, so keep it out of formal writing. The same spelling turns up in printing shops as the verb for spilling type.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of pi.

   A careless typesetter who trips while carrying a full tray pies hours of work.

   Whenever the old press jams, it pies half the type locked in the frame.

   Note

   The printer's verb adds -es after its final vowel: pi, pies. The mess it makes has the same name, since spilled or jumbled metal type is itself called pi, so a typesetter who pies a full tray is left with a heap of pi to sort back into order.

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