P I E 
40 &- 
PIDAU'RA, a town of the Morea, anciently called 
Epidaurus, fituated on the weft coaft of the Gulf of 
Engia : thirty-five miles eaft of Napoli di Romania. Lat. 
37. 40. N, Ion. 23. 24. E. 
PID'DLE, the name of three rivers in Dorfetfnire : 
Bryan’s Piddle, Tol Piddle, and Turner’s Piddle, the 
latter and lower of which runs into Pool Harbour a little 
below Wareham. 
To PID'DLE, v. 7i. [This word is obfcure in its etymo¬ 
logy. Skinner derives it from picciolo, Italian ; or petit, 
Fr. little; Mr. Lye thinks the diminutive of the Weifii 
breyta; to eat; perhaps it comes from peddle, for Skinner 
gives for its primitive fignification, “to deal in little 
things.”] To pick at table ; to feed (queamifhly, and 
without appetite : 
From liomach (harp, and hearty feeding, 
To piddle like a lady breeding. Swift's Mifcell. 
To trifle; to attend to fmail parts rather than to the 
main.—Too precile, too curious, in pulling thus about the 
imitation of others. Afcham's Schoohnajier. 
Now for thcfe other piddling complaints, 
Breath'd out in bitternefs. Majfmgcr. 
PID'DLER, f. One who eats (queamiflily, and with¬ 
out appetite. One who is bufy about minute things. 
PIDISJAR'vr, a town of Sweden, in the government 
of Ulea : forty-eight miles eaft of Gamla Karleby. 
PIE, /I [pica, Lat.] A magpie ; a party-coloured bird. 
•—The pie will difcharge thee for pulling the reft. TuJJer. 
Who taught the parrot human notes to try, 
Or With a voice endu’d the chattering pie? Drydcn. 
Any cruft baked with fomething in it, on account of the 
party-coloured cut of it.—Mincing of meat in pies faveth 
the grinding of the teeth, and more nonrifliing to them 
that have weak teeth. Bacon .— He is the very Withers of 
the city; they have bought more editions of his works, 
than would ferve to lay under all their pies at a lord- 
mayor’s Chriftmas. Bnjden. 
Chufe your materials right; 
From thence of courfe the figure will arife, 
And elegance adorn the furface of your pies. King. 
The old popilh fervice-book, fo called, as is fuppofed, 
irom the different colour of the text and rubric.—The 
number and hardnefs of the rules called the Pie, and the 
manifold changings of the fervice, was the caufe, that to 
turn this book only was fo hard and intricate a matter, 
that many times there was more bufinefs to find out what 
fhould be read, than to read it when it was found out. 
Comm. Prayer, Pref. concern, the Serv. of the Church. 
Cock and Pie wasaflight expreflion in Shakefpeare’s time, 
of which I know not the meaning. Dr. Johnfon. — It was 
an adjuration by the Pie, or fervice-book, and by the fa- 
cred name of the Deity corrupted, (Todd;) as if one 
fhould fay, “ By God and the Prayer-book,” you (hall do 
(o and fo. See a different conjedlure, arifing from the pug¬ 
nacious character of the cock and the magpie, in our ar¬ 
ticle London, vol. xiii. p.498.—Mr. Slender, come; we 
flay for you. I’ll eat nothing, I thank you, fir. By cock 
and pie you (hall not choofe, fir; come, come. Shakefpeare's 
M. Wives of WindJ’or. 
PI'EBALD, udj. Of various colours; diverfified in 
colour.—They would think themfelves miferable in a 
patched coat, and yet contentedly fuffer their minds to 
appear abroad in a piebald livery of coarfe patches and 
borrowed fhreds. Locke. 
Peel’d, patch’d, and piebald, linfey-woolfey brothers, 
Grave mummers! fleevelefs fome, and (hirtlefs others. 
Pope. 
PI'ECRUST, f. The pafte that covers the pie.—Eat 
beef or piecrujl if you’d ferious be. King. 
PIECE, f. [French; pezzo, Ital. from particula, Lat.] 
A part of a whole; a fragment.—Bring it out piece by 
piece. Ezek. xxiv. 26. —Thefeleffer rocks, or great bulky 
P I E 
ftones, that lie (cattered in the fea or upon the land, are 
they not manifeft fragments an d pieces of thefe greater 
maffes ? Burnet. —A man that is in Rome can fcarce fee an 
objeft that does not call to mind a piece of a Latin poet 
or hiftorian. Addijon. —A diftindt part.—It is accounted 
a piece of excellent knowledge, to know the laws of the 
land. Tillotfon. — A patch.—No man putteth a piece of a 
new garment upon an old. Luke,\. 36.—A picture.—If 
unnatural, the fineft colours are but dawbing, and the 
piece is a beautiful monfter at the belt. Drydcn. 
Each heavenly piece unwearied we compare, 
Match Raphael’s grace with thy lov’d Guido’s air. Pope. 
A compofition ; performance.—He yvrote feveral pieces, 
which he did not affurne the honour of. Addifon. —A An¬ 
gle great gun.—A piece of ordnance ’gainft it I have 
plac’d. Shakefpcare. —Many of the (hips have brafs pieces, 
whereas every piece at lead requires four gunners to at¬ 
tend it. Ralegh's Ef.— A hand-gun.—The ball goes on 
in the direction of the flick, or of the body of the piece 
out of which it is (hot, Cheyne. —A coin ; a Angle piece 
of money : 
When once the poet’s honour ceafes, 
From reafon far his tranfports rove ; 
And Boileau, for eight hundred pieces, 
Makes Louis take the wall of Jove. Prior. 
In ridicule and contempt: as, A piece of a lawyer, or 
fmatterer. Dr. Johnfon. —No example is given by Johnfon 
here ; but in a note on Titus Andronicus, he (ays that 
piece was then, as it is now, ufed perfonally as a word of 
contempt. He might have added, that it was alfo ufed 
without contempt. Todd.- —How doth he, though a better 
Pharifee, lock awry to fee fuch a piece in his houfe! lip. 
Hall. 
I had a wife, a pafling princely peece, 
Which (ar did paffe that gallant girle of Greece. 
Mir. for Mag. 
A-Piece. To each.—I demand, concerning all thofe 
creatures that have eyes-and ears, whether they might 
not have had only one eye and one ear a-piece. More 
again ft Alheifm. 
Of a Piece with. Like; of the fame fort ; united ; the 
fame with the reft.— Nothing but madnefs can pleafe 
madmen, and a poet mud be of a piece with the fptdtators, 
to gain a reputation. Drydcn. 
Too juftly ravifh’d from an age like this ; 
Now (lie is gone, the world is of a piece. Dryden. 
Piece, in commerce, fignifies fometimes a whole, and 
fometimes only a part of the whole. In the firlt fenfe we 
fay, a piece of cloth, of filk, See. meaning a certain 
quantity of yards, regulated by cuftom, being yet entire, 
•and not cut. In the other fignification we fay, a piece of 
tapeftry; meaning a diftindt member wrought apart, 
which, with feveral others, make one hanging. A piece 
of wine, of cyder, &c. is a ca(k full of thofe liquors. 
Piece, in coinage and commerce, fignifies fometimes 
the fame thing with fpecies: as when we fay, This piece 
is too light, &c. 
Piece of Eight denotes the Spanifli dollar, or pefo, which 
in foreign exchanges is valued at 8 reals of old plate, or 
j 5 reals 2 maravedis vellon; but, in commercial tranfac- 
tions within the country, it is reckoned at 15 reals vel¬ 
lon. As a filver coin, the dollar, 01* pefo duro, lince the 
coinage of 1772, paffes for 20 reals vellon, and the half- 
dollar, orefeudo vellon, for 10. See the Table of Silver 
Coins, under the article Money, vol. xv. p. 658. 
The average weight of 1000 dollars at the Bank of 
England is found to be 866 ounces troy. The Spanilh 
dollars coined fince 1772 have the following impreflions : 
Head of the reigning king, with his name and dei gra¬ 
tia; reverfe, arms of Spain, which, on pieces coined at 
Mexico, (land between two pillars with NE plus ultra : 
legend round the piece, hispan. et ind. rex, with an M. 
for Mexico ; R. for eight reals, and the initials of the 
manever’s 
