a portion or quantity of something:a piece of land.
a portion of a whole:a piece of apple pie.
an individual thing of a particular class or set:a piece of furniture.
a created work of art, music, or writing:He writes funny pieces for that magazine.
Chessone of the figures, disks, or the like used in playing a board game.
an example of something:This report is a fine piece of work.
a part, fragment, or shred:to tear a letter into pieces.
one's opinion or thoughts on a subject:Here's a piece of advice: don't do it.
a coin:a five-cent piece.
an amount of work constituting a single job:to be paid by the piece.Seepiecework.
Dialect Terms[Midland and Southern U.S.]a distance:[singular* a + ~]down the road a piece.
v.
[~ + object] to mend by adding a piece or pieces; patch.
to join together, as pieces or parts: [~ + together + object]I pieced together the broken fragments.[~ + object + together]I pieced the fragments together.
to make or assemble by or as if by joining pieces or facts, information, etc.: [~ + together + object]to piece together such a fine musical program.[~ + object + together]She pieced a fine program together.[~ + together + object]They were finally able to piece together the whole story of his death.
Idioms
Idiomsa piece of one's mind, a sharp scolding or piece of criticism:gave his daughter a piece of his mind when she came home so late.
Idiomsgo to pieces:
to lose control of oneself:After her son's death she simply went to pieces.
in pieces, destroyed; in ruins; not effective:careful plans of conquest lay in pieces.
Idiomspiece of cake, [Informal.]something easily done:Robbing the store was a piece of cake.
to pieces:
left completely ruined or no longer effective:tore our arguments to pieces.
Note that since piece is a noun that can be counted, it may be used to describe a part of some noncount noun:lumber[uncountable] →a piece[countable]of lumber; furniture[uncountable] →a piece[countable]of furniture.