pie (English, noun)
Pronunciation: enpr: pī
tags: UK
US
ipa: /paɪ/
tags: General-Australian
ipa: /pɑɪ/
homophone: pi
rhymes: -aɪ
Etymology: From Middle English pye, pie, pey, perhaps from Old English *pīe (“pastry”) (compare Old English pīe, pēo (“insect, bug”)), attested in early Middle English piehus (“bakery”, literally “pie-house”) c. 1199. Relation to Medieval Latin pica, pia (“pie, pastry”) is unclear, as there are no similar terms found in any Romance languages; therefore, like Irish pióg (“pie”), the Latin term may have been simply borrowed from the English.
Some sources state the word comes from Latin pīca (“magpie, jay”) (from the idea of the many ingredients put into pies likened to the tendency of magpies to bring a variety of objects back to their nests), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker; magpie”), though this has its controversies. However, if so, then it is a doublet of pica.
Definitions: examples: text: The family had steak and kidney pie for dinner and cherry pie for dessert.
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text: SATURNINUS: Go fetch them hither to us presently.
TITUS: Why, there they are, both baked in that pie,
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
ref: c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
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glosses: A type of pastry that consists of an outer crust and a filling. (Savory pies are more popular in the UK and sweet pies are more popular in the US, so "pie" without qualification has different connotations in these dialects.)
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: text: Shepherd's pie is made of mince covered with mashed potato.
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type: example
glosses: Any of various other, non-pastry dishes that maintain the general concept of a shell with a filling.
tags: countable
uncountable
glosses: A pizza.
tags: Northeastern
US
countable
uncountable
glosses: A paper plate covered in cream, shaving foam or custard that is thrown or rubbed in someone’s face for comical purposes, to raise money for charity, or as a form of political protest; a custard pie; a cream pie.
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: text: It is easier to get along when everyone, more or less, is getting ahead. But when the pie is shrinking, social groups are more likely to turn on each other.
ref: 2010 December 4, Evan Thomas, “Why It’s Time to Worry”, in Newsweek:
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glosses: The whole of a wealth or resource, to be divided in parts.
tags: countable
figuratively
uncountable
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: An especially badly bowled ball.
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: text: Pies are best for comparing the components of only one or two totals.
ref: 1986, Carolyn Sorensen, Henry J. Stock, Department of Education Computer Graphics Guide, page 8:
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glosses: A pie chart.
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: text: Programmers haven't exactly been wild about certain Microsoft policies — such as the price of the OS/2 developer's kit or the fib about how Microsoft Windows code would be pie to translate to the Presentation Manager.
ref: 1989, PC Mag, volume 8, number 5, page 91:
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glosses: Something very easy; a piece of cake.
tags: countable
informal
uncountable
examples: text: "Yeah, take it off!" "SHOW US YOUR PIE!" The brunette opened the catch on her G-string and let the sequinned cloth slip down, teasing them with it.
ref: 1981, William Kotzwinkle, Jack in the Box:
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text: Yeah, some guys like to eat the old hairy pie. Women, too, or so I've heard.
ref: 2010, W. A. Moltinghorne, Magnolia Park, page 238:
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glosses: The vulva.
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
examples: text: Did fed time outta town pie flipper / Turn Cristal into a crooked-I sipper
ref: 1997 January 3, “Can't Nobody Hold Me Down”performed by Sean Combs ft. Mase:
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text: My weed smoke is my lye, a ki of coke is a pie / When I'm lifted I'm high, with new clothes on I'm fly
ref: [1998 October 18, “Ebonics”performed by Big L:
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text: I love the cutie pies, never the zootie pies
ref: 1999 July 13, “Discipline”performed by Gang Starr ft. Total:
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glosses: A kilogram of drugs, especially cocaine.
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
Forms: form: pies
tags: plural
Derived terms: aloo pie
American as apple pie
American pie
angel pie
apple-pie
apple pie
apple-pie bed
apple-pie order
Australian as a meat pie
banoffee pie
battalia pie
bean pie
black-bottom pie
black bottom pie
blueberry pie
Bob Andy pie
Boston cream pie
bran pie
buko pie
butter pie
by cock and pie
cap-à-pie
cap-a-pie
cherry pie
chess pie
chiffon pie
Chinese pie
choco pie
Christmas pie
Christmas Pie
Christmaspie
cottage pie
cow pie
cream pie
Cumberland pie
custard pie
custard-pie
cutie-pie
cutie pie
Devizes pie
Devon pie
dirt pie
easy as pie
eat humble pie
English as apple pie
Eskimo pie
fidget pie
finger in the pie
finger pie
fisherman's pie
flapper pie
football pie
frankenpie
fried pie
Frito pie
funeral pie
fur pie
gala pie
gamekeeper's pie
grasshopper pie
Grosvenor pie
hair pie
hand pie
have one's fingers in many pies
homity pie
Hoosier pie
horned pie
hot pie
humble pie
icebox pie
I like pie
impossible pie
Jack Horner pie
Karelian pie
Kate and Sidney pie
Kate and Sydney pie
Key lime pie
lamb pie
lemon meringue pie
like flies on pie
lumber pie
macaroni pie
maggoty-pie
meat pie
mincemeat pie
mince pie
Mississippi mud pie
mom and apple pie
Montgomery pie
moon pie
motherhood and apple pie
mud pie
mud pie argument
nice as pie
party pie
pecan pie
Périgord pie
picnic pie
pie baking
pie-baking
pie bed
pie bird
pie car
pie cart
piece of the pie
pie chart
pie chest
pie chimney
pie-chucker
pie crust
pie-eater
pie-eyed
pie-faced
pie floater
pie fork
pie funnel
pie graph
pie-hole
piehole
pie hole
pie house
pieing
pie-in-the-sky
pie in the sky
pie iron
piemaker
pie menu
pie pan
pie plant
pie plate
pie rule
pie safe
pie server
pie supper
piet
pie thrower
pie tin
pie vent
pie wagon
pie whistle
pie-wipe
pigeon pie
pigeon-pie
pity pie
pizza pie
poacher's pie
pork pie
pork pie hat
porky pie
possum pie
pot-pie
pot pie
pudding pie
pumpion pie
pumpkin pie
pumpkin pie spice
rappie pie
refrigerator pie
resurrection pie
Scotch pie
sea-pie
share of the pie
shepherdess pie
shepherdless pie
shepherd's pie
shepherds pie
shoo-fly pie
shoofly pie
shred pie
slice of the pie
slice the pie
snake and pygmy pie
Snickers pie
squab pie
stand pie
stargazey pie
stargazy pie
steak and kidney pie
Strasbourg pie
Strasburg pie
sugar cream pie
sugar pie
sweet as pie
sweetie pie
tadago-pie
tamale pie
tin roof pie
tomato pie
transparent pie
Twelfth Night pie
twelfth pie
umble pie
vinegar pie
Washington pie
water pie
white pie
who ate all the pies
whoopee pie
whoopie pie
Woolton pie
Yorkshire pie
Related terms: pastie
pasty