PIECE, n. [Heb. to cut off or clip.]

1. A fragment or part of any thing separated from the whole, in any manner, by cutting, splitting, breaking or tearing; as, to cut in pieces, break in pieces, tear in pieces, pull in pieces, &c.; a piece of a rock; a piece of paper.
2. A part of any thing, though not separated, or separated only in idea; not the whole; a portion; as, a piece of excellent knowledge. – Tillotson.
3. A distinct part or quantity; a part considered by itself, or separated from the rest only by a boundary or divisional line; as, a piece of land in the meadow or on the mountain.
4. A separate part; a thing or portion distinct from others of a like kind; as, a piece of timber; a piece of cloth; a piece of paper hangings.
5. A composition, essay or writing of no great length; as, a piece of poetry or prose; a piece of music.
6. A separate performance; a distinct portion of labor; as, a piece of work.
7. A picture or painting. If unnatural, the finest colors are hot daubing, and the piece is a beautiful monster at the best. – Dryden.
8. A coin; as, a piece of eight.
9. A gun or single part of ordnance. We apply the word to a cannon, a mortar, or a musket. Large guns are called battering pieces; smaller guns are called field pieces.
10. In heraldry, an ordinary or charge. The fess, the bend, the pale, the bar, the cross, the saltier, the chevron are called honorable pieces.
11. In ridicule or contempt. A piece of a lawyer is a smatterer.
12. A castle; a building. [Not in use.] – Spenser. A-piece, to each; as, he paid the men a dollar a-piece. Of a piece, like; of the same sort, as if taken from the same whole. They seemed all of a piece. Sometimes followed by with. The poet must be of a piece with the spectators to gain reputation. – Dryden.

To unite by a coalescence of parts; to be compacted, as parts into a whole. – Bacon.

To enlarge or mend by the addition of a piece; to patch; as, to piece a garment; to piece the time. – Shak. To piece out, to extend or enlarge by addition of a piece or pieces. – Temple.

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. To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces] to patch; as, to piece a garment; -- often with out.
   
   
   Shak.
3. To unite by a coalescence of parts; to fit together; to join.
   
   
   "It pieced better." Bacon.
4. A definite portion or quantity, as of goods or work; as, a piece of broadcloth; a piece of wall paper.
5. To unite; to join; to combine.
   
   
   Fuller.

   His adversaries . . . pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him. Fuller.

6. 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)
7. 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.

8. One of the superior men, distinguished from a pawn.
9. 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.