1. Having spots and patches of black and white, or other colors; mottled; pied. "A piebald steed of Thracian
strain." Dryden.
2. Fig.: Mixed. "Piebald languages." Hudibras.
Piece
(Piece) n. [OE. pece, F. pièce, 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. 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 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.
Piece
(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. Piece
(Piece) v. i. To unite by a coalescence of parts; to fit together; to join. "It pieced better." Bacon.
