A separate part or item, with uses for works of art and writing, game tokens, coins, informal stretches of time or distance, slang guns and sexual labels, and a verb meaning to join or repair parts.
A movable object used by a player in a board game or strategy game.
Examples
Each player starts with sixteen chess pieces.
She moved her piece across the board.
A missing piece made the old game hard to play.
The knight is the only piece that jumps over others.
Put the red piece on the starting square.
Similar words
token
counter
marker
chessman
man
playing piece
Coin or unit sold singly
noun
money
neutral
A coin or a single unit counted, bought, or sold one at a time.
Examples
The child kept a shiny fifty-cent piece.
Pirate stories often mention pieces of eight.
The stall sold candy by the piece.
Collectors argued over the value of the silver piece.
Each handmade tile is priced per piece.
Similar words
coin
token
unit
specie
item
Short distance or time
noun
distance
informal
An unspecified stretch of distance or period of time, usually a modest one.
Examples
The farmhouse is down the road a piece.
Walk with me a piece before you turn back.
We rested a piece under the trees.
The creek runs a piece beyond the old bridge.
She stayed a piece longer to hear the end of the story.
Similar words
while
spell
stretch
way
distance
Gun
noun
weapons
slang
A firearm, especially a handgun, named in blunt informal or criminal slang.
Examples
Police said the suspect was carrying a piece.
The old detective novel calls every handgun a piece.
He flashed a piece, and the room went quiet.
The witness heard him brag about a new piece.
In the film, piece marks the speaker as rough and streetwise.
Similar words
gun
firearm
handgun
weapon
gat
strap
heater
Objectified sexual person
noun
sexuality
slang
A vulgar, objectifying way to refer to a person, usually a woman, as sexually desirable or sexually available.
Examples
The script uses piece to show how crude the character is.
Calling someone a piece at work would be insulting.
The old slang dictionary glossed piece as a sexualized label for a woman.
He thought piece sounded flattering, but it landed as sexist.
The editor removed piece because the scene no longer needed that harsh tone.
Similar words
hottie
babe
piece of ass
sex object
stunner
Join or repair from parts
verb
repair
neutral
To make, repair, complete, or understand something by adding or joining separate pieces.
Examples
Detectives tried to piece together the timeline.
She pieced the quilt from scraps of old shirts.
The archaeologists pieced the bowl together from tiny shards.
We slowly pieced together what had happened.
He pieces broken memories into a clear story.
Similar words
assemble
join
patch
mend
reconstruct
repair
connect
Etymology
From Middle English pece, from Old French piece, from Vulgar Latin pettia, probably of Gaulish origin and related to Welsh peth, meaning a thing. The verb developed from the noun in the sense of mending by adding pieces.
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