piece 
= Sp. pieza,pedazo = Pg. pec,a, pedaqo, pedasso 
= It. pezza, pczzo, < ML. petium, also (after CXb . ) 
pecia, a piece ; origin obscure. Cf . ML. pedica, 
a piece of ground, appar. < L. pes (pea-) = t>- 
foot.'] 1. A relatively small portion in bulk or 
extent forming a part of the whole in which it 
is or was included; a part; bit; morsel: as, a 
piece ol bread or of chalk; a piece of ground; a 
piece of history; apteee of one's mind. 
He alle nakeil hath a ful scharp Knyl in his bond, and he 
cuttotht! a gret pece of his Flesche and castethe it in the 
face of his Ydole. seyenge his Orysounes, recommendynge 
him to his God. ' Mandeville, Travels, p. 177. 
There is surely a piece of divinity in us. 
Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, li. 11. 
But they relate this piece of history of a water about a 
mile to the south-west of Bethlehem. 
Pococke, Description of the East, II. i. 40. 
I'll gie ye a piece of advice bend weel to the Madeira 
at dinner, for here ye'll get little o't after. 
E. B. Ramsay's Scottish Life and Character, ii. 
2. A separate bit; a fragment: as, to fall to 
pieces; to break, tear, cut, or dash to pieces. 
Many a schene scheld schenered al to peces. 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3411. 
The herte began to swelle with-ynne his cheste, 
Soo sore streyned for anguysshe & for peyne 
That alle to pecis almoste itt to-breste. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 68. 
If they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. 
Shak., Rich. HI., i. 3. 260. 
3. A specimen, instance, example, or sort: as, 
& piece of impudence ; apiece of carelessness. 
Othes, as if they would rend heaven In sunder, . . . 
Flie from his mouth, that piece of blasphemie. 
Times' Whistle (E. E. T. S.X p. 24. 
Did you, I say again, in all this progress, 
Ever discover such a piece of beauty, 
Ever so rare a creature? Fletcher, Valentinian, 1. i. 
O, 'twas a piece 
Of pity and duty unexampled. 
Ford, Lover's Melancholy, v. 1. 
4. A separate article; a thing: as, apiece of 
plate. 
Dumb as a senator, and, as a priest, 
A piece of mere church-furniture at best. 
Cowper, Tirocinium, 1. 425. 
(a) A coin : as, a piece of eight (see phrase below) ; a four- 
penny piece. 
Meer. What is 't, a hundred pound? 
Eve. No, th' harpy now stands on a hundred pieces. 
B. Jonson, Devil is an Ass, iii. 1. 
When Apiece of silveris named in the Pentateuch, it sig- 
nifies a side ; if it be named in the prophets, it signifies a 
pound ; if in the other writings of the Old Testament, it 
signifies a talent. Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), I. 290. 
Harry Fielding . . . was in nowise particular in accept- 
ing a few pieces from the purses of his rich friends, and 
bore down upon more than one of them . . . for a dinner 
or a guinea. Thackeray, English Humourists. 
(6) A cannon or gun ; a firearm : as, his piece was not 
loaded ; a fowling-piece. 
He hath great pieces of ordnance, and mighty kings and 
emperors, to shoot against God's people. 
Latimer, Misc. Sel. 
Sometimes we put a new signification to an old word, 
as when we call & piece a Gun. Selden, Table-Talk, p. 65. 
(ct) A building ; a castle. 
Yet still he bet and bounst uppon the dore, 
And thundred strokes thereon so hideouslie, 
That all the peece he shaked from the flore. 
Spenser, F. Q., V. ii. 21. 
(</t ) A ship ; a vessel. 
The wondred Argo, which in venturous peece 
First through theEuxine seas bore all theflowrof Greece. 
Spenser, F. Q., II. xii. 44. 
(e) A distinct artistic or literary production ; a separate 
article, poem, drama, painting, statue, or other artistic or 
literary work : as, a piece of music ; to speak a piece ; a 
finely painted piece. 
I bequeth to Edmund Paston, my sone, a standing pece 
white covered, with a garleek heed upon the knoppe, and 
a gilt pece covered with an unicorne. 
Paston Letters, III. 285. 
As I am a gentleman and a reveller, I'll make a pice- of 
poetry, and absolve all, within these five days. 
B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1. 
I suppose one sha'n't be able to get in, for on the first 
night of a new piece they always fill the house with orders 
to support it. Sheridan, The Critic, i. 1. 
This gentleman [Mr. Reynolds] . . . painted a piece of 
me, Lady Lyndon, and pur little Bryan, which was greatly 
admired at the exhibition. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, xvii. 
(/) A lunch ; a snack. [Prov. or colloq.] 
5. A distinct job or operation taken separately ; 
the amount of work done or to be done at any 
one time : as, to work by the piece; to do piece- 
work. 6. A definite and continuous quantity; 
a definite length, as of some textile fabric de- 
livered by a manufacturer to the trade ; a whole 
web of cloth or a whole roll of wall-paper : as, 
goods sold only by the piece; a whole piece of 
lace. 
This sorrow works me, like a cunning friendship, 
Into the same piece with it. 
Beau, and Fl, King and No King, iv. 2. 
4478 
As in little patterns torn from a whole piece, this may 
tell you what all I am. Donne, Letters, in. 
7. In brewing, a quantity of grain steeped and 
spread out at one time to make malt. Also 
called floor. 
There can be no doubt that it is of importance to the 
maltster that the law allows him to sprinkle water over 
the pieces on the floor. Eneyc. tint., IV. 268. 
8. A plot of ground; a lot; afield; a clearing. 
The fire took in the woods down back of our house ; it 
went through Aunt Dolphy's piece, and so down to the 
Horse Sheds. A Judd, Margaret, ii. 10. 
9. An individual; a person: now used only 
contemptuously, and commonly of women: as, 
she is a bold piece. 
St John is called in p. 634 [ot the Cursor Mundi] " a wel 
godd pece." OKphant, Old and Middle English, p. 564. 
She 'a but a sallow, freckled-face piece when she is at the 
best. Chapman, Monsieur D'Olive, v. 1. 
He is another manner of piece than you think for : but 
nineteen years old, and yet he is taller than either of you 
by the head. B. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, i. 1. 
10. In chess, checkers, etc., one of the men with 
which the game is played ; specifically, in chess, 
one of the superior men, as distinguished from 
a pawn. lit. A cup or drinking-vessel: also 
used indefinitely for a cask or barrel of wine, 
as the equivalent of the French piece, which has 
different values in different parts of France. 
Home, Launce, and strike a fresh piece of wine. 
Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, v. 10. 
12. In bookbinding, a tablet of leather which 
fills a panel on the back of a book. 13. In 
whaling, specifically, a section or chunk of blub- 
ber, more fully called blanket-piece (which see, 
below). 14. In etom.,anydefinitely hardened 
or chitinized part of the integument, especially 
of the abdomen, thorax, or head: technically 
called a sclerite. Two pieces may be movable on each 
other or free, united with a suture between or perfectly 
connate, so that even the suture is obliterated, and the 
pieces can be distinguished by their position ouly. A 
piece Of, a bit of ; something of ; one who is (a doer of 
something) to some extent. 
If you are a piece of a farrier, as every good groom ought 
to be, get sack, brandy, or strong beer to rub your horses 
heels every night. Swift, Directions to Servants. 
At all piecest, at all points. Davies. 
The image of a man at Arnies on horsebacke, armed at 
all veeces, with a launce in his hand. 
Holland, tr. of Camden, p. 780. 
Axis of a piece. See <mi. Binding-piece. SeeWnd- 
ing. Blanket-piece, a strip or section of blubber cut 
from a whale In a spiral direction, and raised by means of 
the cutting-tackle. As the blubber is unwound or stripped 
from the animal it is called a blanket-piece, and after being 
cut in sections and lowered into the blubber-room it still 
retains the name ; but when subdivided for mincing it is 
known as a horse-piece, which in its turn becomes a book 
or bible, and when the oil has been extracted the residuum 
is known as scrap. Bobstay, characteristic, etc., piece. 
See the qualifying words. Deciduous pieces. Same as 
deciduous cusps (which see, under deciduous). Easel- 
piece. Seeeosrfi. Face Of apiece. See/ace'. Nog- 
ging-pieces. See nagging. Of a piece, as if of the same 
piece or whole ; of the same nature, constitution, or dispo- 
sition ; of the same sort : generally followed by with. 
As to the mechanism and scenery, every thing, indeed, 
was uniform, and of a piece. Steele, Spectator, No. 14. 
The episodes interspersed in this strange story were of 
a piece with the main plot. Macaulay, Hist. Eng. , vii. 
Piece of cambric, linen, or French lawn, formerly is 
ells. Piece Of eigntt, the Spanish peso dun (hard dollar) 
bearing the numeral 8, and of the value of 8 reals. The 
commercial sign for " dollar " () is supposed to have refer- 
ence to this eight, the vertical strokes representing the 
Pillars of Hercules, which were formerly stamped on some 
dollars. According to another account, the sign is de- 
rived from the stamp 8R. (8 reals) accompanied by two 
vertical strokes. 
Tho' the City be then so full, yet during this heat of 
Business there is no hiring of an ordinary Slave under a 
Piece of Eight a day. Dampier, Voyages, I. 179. 
A Note of his Hand to pay me 80 pieces of Eight for it at 
Brasil ; ... he ofler'd me also 6 pieces of Eight more for 
my Boy Xury. Defoe, Robinson Crusoe. 
Satisfaction piece, the formal certificate given by one 
receiving payment of a mortgage or judgment, certifying 
that it h;'s been paid, and authorizing the public officer in 
charge of the record to note upon the record that it has 
been satisfied. To cut to pieces. See cut. To give 
One a piece Of one's mind, to pronounce an opinion 
bluntly to one's face generally something uncompli- 
mentary, or implying complaint or reproach. 
In a majestic tone he told that officer a piece of his inind. 
Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xxxviii. 
She doubled up an imaginary fist at Miss AsphyxiaSmith, 
and longed to give her a piece of her mind. 
U. B. Stowe, Oldtown, p. 199. 
To go to pieces. See go. = Syn. 1 and 2. Section, Divi- 
sion, etc. (see part, .), bit, scrap, morsel. 
piece (pes), .; pret. and pp. pieced, j>pr.jiitrin</. 
[< piece, n.~] 1. trans. 1. To patch, repair, 
enlarge, extend, or complete by the addition 
of a piece or pieces : as, to piece a garment or a 
curtain. 
piecemeal 
Iwil 
Her opulent throne with kingdoms. 
Skak., A. andC., L 5.45. 
I went and paid a moccinigo 
For piecing my silk stockings. 
B. Jonson, Volpone, iv. 1. 
2. To repair by the use of pieces of the same 
material, or without the addition of new ma- 
terial, as by bringing the unworn parts to the 
place where the most wear is ; hence, to make 
good the defects of ; strengthen; reinforce. 
It Is thought the French King will piece him up again 
with new Recruits. HoweU, Letters, I. iv. 20. 
3. To unite or reunite (that which has been 
broken or separated) ; make one again ; join or 
rejoin, as one thing to another, or as friends who 
have fallen out. 
Hem. I heard they were out. 
Nee. But they are pieced, and put together again. 
B. Jonson, Magnetick Lady, iii. 1. 
Gwendolen . . . had conceived a project ... to place 
her mother and sisters with herself in Offendene again, 
and, as she said, piece back her life on to that time when 
they first went there. Oeorge Eliot, Daniel Deronda, Ixv. 
To piece Out, to form, enlarge, or complete by adding 
piece to piece. 
To those of weaker merits he imparts a larger portion, 
and pieces out the defect of one by the excess of the other. 
Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, L 18. 
Though his grove was city-planted, and scant of the fo- 
liage of the forest, there was Fancy to piece out for him 
... far other groves. Forster, Goldsmith, iii 19. 
To piece up, to patch up ; form of pieces or patches ; put 
together bit by bit. 
I have known 
Twenty such breaches pieced up and made whole 
Without a bum of noise. 
B. Jonson, Magnetick Lady, iv. 2. 
He tells us that he began this History "about the year 
1630, and so pieced up at times of leisure afterward.' 
Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, p. 444, note. 
II. intrans. 1. To unite by coalescence of 
parts ; be gathered as parts into a whole. 
The cunning Priest changed his Copy, and chose now 
Plantagenet to be the Subject his Pupill should person- 
ate, because ... it pieced better, and followed more close 
and handsomely upon the bruit of Plantagenets escape. 
Bacon, Hist. Hen. VII., p. 23. 
Those things which have long gone together are, as it 
were, confederate with themselves; whereas new things 
piece not so well. Bacon, Innovations (ed. 1887). 
2 To eat a "piece"; eat between meals, as 
a child. [Colloq., U. S.] 
piece-broker (pes'bro"ker), n. A person who 
buys shreds and remnants of woolen cloth from 
tailors, to sell again for use in mending, patch- 
ing, etc. Simmonds. 
pieced (pest), p. a. Repaired, strengthened, or 
completed by the adding or joining of pieces. 
In bookbinding, those bindings are said to be pieced in 
which the space between the bands upon which the title 
is to be stamped is covered with colored leather, usually 
of a different color from the covering of the book. 
piece de resistance (pias de ra-zes-tons')- [F., 
lit. 'piece of resistance,' i. e. substantial piece: 
see piece, del, resistance."] The most important 
piece or feature; the show piece; the main 
event or incident in any round or series, as 
the most forcible article in a magazine, the 
principal exhibition or performance in a show 
or theatrical entertainment, or the most sub- 
stantial dish in a dinner. 
piece-dyed (pes'did), a. Dyed in the piece : said 
of cloth dyed after weaving, as distinguished 
from that made of wool dyed before weaving. 
piece-goods (pes'gudz), n. pi. All kinds of cot- 
ton, linen, silk, or wool fabrics which are woven 
in lengths suitable for retail sale by the usual 
linear measure, as calicoes, shirtings, sheet- 
ings, mulls, jaconets, and long cloths. 
pieceless (pes'les), .a. [< piece + -less.] Not 
made of pieces; consisting of something entire 
or continuous. 
In those poor types of God (round circles) so 
Religion's types, the pieceless centres flow, 
And are in all the lines which all ways go. 
Donne, To the Countess of Bedford. 
piece-liquor (pes'lik"or), H. In breiriut/, a part 
of a mash which, being of a higher or lower 
temperature than another part, but having the 
same density, is added to that other part to 
change its temperature without altering its 
strength. 
piecelyt (pes'li), adv. In pieces; piecemeal. 
Hiiloet. 
piece-master (pes'mas"ter), n. A middleman 
coining between an employer and the employed. 
Mni/licw. (Imp. Diet.) [Eng.] 
piecemeal (pes'mel), a<lr. [Early mod. E. also 
peecemealc, < ME. peeemele ; (.piece + -mi-ol. as 
in droi>meal, flock-meal, etc.] 1. By pieces; 
