Piece (?), n. [OE. pece, F. piece, LL. pecia, petia, petium, probably of Celtic origin; cf. W. peth a thing, a part, portion, a little, Armor. pez, Gael. & Ir. cuid part, share. Cf. Petty.]
1.
A fragment or part of anything separated from the whole, in any manner, as by cutting, splitting, breaking, or tearing; a part; a portion; as, a piece of sugar; to break in pieces.
Bring it out piece by piece.
Ezek. xxiv. 6.
2.
A definite portion or quantity, as of goods or work; as, a piece of broadcloth; a piece of wall paper.
3.
Any one thing conceived of as apart from other things of the same kind; an individual article; a distinct single effort of a series; a definite performance
; especially: (a)
A literary or artistic composition; as, a piece of poetry, music, or statuary
. (b)
A musket, gun, or cannon; as, a battery of six pieces; a following piece
. (c)
A coin; as, a sixpenny piece; -- formerly applied specifically to an English gold coin worth 22 shillings
. (d)
A fact; an item; as, a piece of news; a piece of knowledge
.
4.
An individual; -- applied to a person as being of a certain nature or quality; often, but not always, used slightingly or in contempt.
"If I had not been a
piece of a logician before I came to him."
Sir P. Sidney.
Thy mother was a piece of virtue.
Shak.
His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world.
Coleridge.
<-- a piece of cake, a task easily accomplished. a piece of work, a disparaging term for a person considered to have an excess of some undesirable quality; esp. difficult or eccentric person. Piece of ass vulgar term for a woman, considered as a partner in sexual intercourse -->
5. Chess
One of the superior men, distinguished from a pawn.
6.
A castle; a fortified building.
[Obs.]
Spenser.
Of a piece, of the same sort, as if taken from the same whole; like; -- sometimes followed by with. Dryden. -- Piece of eight, the Spanish piaster, formerly divided into eight reals. -- To give a piece of one's mind to, to speak plainly, bluntly, or severely to (another). Thackeray. -- Piece broker, one who buys shreds and remnants of cloth to sell again. -- Piece goods, goods usually sold by pieces or fixed portions, as shirtings, calicoes, sheetings, and the like.
© Webster 1913.
Piece, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pieced (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Piecing (?).]
1.
To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; as, to piece a garment; -- often with out.
Shak.
2.
To unite; to join; to combine.
Fuller.
His adversaries . . . pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.
Fuller.
© Webster 1913.
Piece (?), v. i.
To unite by a coalescence of parts; to fit together; to join.
"It
pieced better."
Bacon.
© Webster 1913.