piece
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: pēs
ipa: /piːs/
rhymes: -iːs
homophone: peace
Forms: form: pieces
form: piecing
form: pieced
form: pieced
form: peece
Etymology: From Middle English pece, peece, peice, from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia, pettia, possibly from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (“piece, portion, quota”); doublet of English fit, fytte, fytt (“musical piece, chapter”), Icelandic fit (“web”), German Fitze (“skein”), from Old High German *fitjâ. Compare Welsh peth, Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid. Compare French pièce, Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza, Italian pezza, Italian pezzo.
Senses: examples: text: These clues allowed us to piece together the solution to the mystery.
text: His adversaries […] pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.
ref: 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
glosses: To assemble (something real or figurative).
raw_tags: with together
examples: text: to piece a garment
text: You have broke it, cousin: and , by my life , you shall make it whole again ; you shall piece it out with a piece of your performance
ref: c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
glosses: To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out.
examples: text: “It didn't rain, so I decided to come piece with you.[…]” We never finished that piece.
ref: 1994, William Upski Wimsatt, Bomb the Suburbs, revised second edition, Chicago: The Subway and Elevated Press Company, →ISBN, page 7:
text: It is incorrect to say that toys tag and masters piece; toys just do bad tags, bad throw-ups, and bad pieces.
ref: 2009, Gregory J. Snyder, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground, page 40:
text: It is often used to collect other writer's tags, and future plans for bombing and piecing.
ref: 2009, Scape Martinez, GRAFF: The Art & Technique of Graffiti, page 124:
glosses: To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag.
examples: text: There he was, piecing on the ham.
ref: 1941, Eudora Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O.”, in A Curtain of Green, page 104:
text: Do not piece between meals.
ref: c. 1950, Kansas State Board of Health, Division of Maternal and Child Health Nutrition Service publication, "Proper food before the baby comes", State Library of Kansas, page 2:
text: “Piecing” between meals often means eating sweet crackers, candy, or sweet beverages at almost any hour. These taste good but spoil the appetite for more desirable foods. What's eaten between meals should make a real contribution to daily food intake: fruit, or tomato juice, or a small glass of milk, a small peanut butter or cheese sandwich and the like are good choices. And a mid-morning or mid-afternoon pick-up does not interfere with appetite as irregular nibbling or piecing does.
ref: 1956, United States Children's Bureau publication, Your Child from One to Six, US Government Publishing Office, page 46:
synonyms: word: nosh
word: nibble
word: eat
word: have
word: fret
qualifier: chiefly North Midland US
glosses: To eat small quantities of food between meals; to snack; to take small or intermittent bites at a food item.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from piece (verb)
word: piece out
sense: Terms derived from piece (verb)
word: piece together
sense: Terms derived from piece (verb)
word: repiece
sense: Terms derived from piece (verb)
word: unpiece