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 ones 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."

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 (?), v. i. To unite by a coalescence of parts; to fit together; to join. "It pieced better." Bacon.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913