Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PIC-TUR-ESQUE'LY, or PIC-TUR-ESK'LY, adv.

In a picturesque manner. – Montgomery.

PIC-TUR-ESQUE'NESS, or PIC-TUR-ESK'NESS, n.

The state of being picturesque. Price.

PIC'UL, n.

In China, a weight of 133 1/3 lbs. It is divided into 100 catties, or 1600 taels. The Chinese call it ton. – Malcom.

PIC'UL, n.

In Burmah, a weight of 133 pounds. – Malcom. [1841 Addenda only.]

PID'DLE, v.i. [This is a different spelling of peddle, or from the same source.]

1. To deal in trifles; to spend time in trifling objects; to attend to trivial concerns or the small parts rather than to the main. – Ainsworth.
2. To pick at table; to eat squeamishly or without appetite. – Swift.

PID'DLER, n.

1. One who busies himself about little things.
2. One that eats squeamishly or without appetite.

PIE, n.¹ [It. pighe, perhaps from the paste; Gr. παχυς, thick; or from mixing.]

An article of food consisting of paste baked with something in it or under it, as apple, minced meat, &c.

PIE, n.² [L. pica; piog.]

1. The magpie, a party-colored bird of the genus Corvus. It is sometimes written pye.
2. The old popish service book, supposed to be so called from the different color of the text and rubric, or from litera picata, a large black letter, used at the beginning of each order.
3. Printers' types mixed or unsorted. Cock and pie, an abjuration by the pie or service book, and by the sacred name of the Deity corrupted. – Shak.

PIE-BALD, a. [Sp. pio, of various colors.]

Of various colors; diversified in color; as, a piebald horse. – Pope.

PIECE, n. [Fr. pièce; It. pezzo; Sp. pieza; Port. peça; Ir. piosa; Arm. pez. If the elements of this word are Bz, it may be from the Heb. Ch. Syr. and Ar. בצע, 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.

PIECE, v.i.

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

PIECE, v.t.

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.

PIEC-ED, pp.

Mended or enlarged by a piece or pieces.

PIECE-LESS, a.

Not made of pieces; consisting of an entire thing. – Donne.

PIECE-MEAL, a.

Single; separate; made of parts or pieces. – South.

PIECE-MEAL, adv. [piece and Sax. mel, time. Qu.]

1. In pieces; in fragments. On which it piecemeal broke. – Chapman.
2. By pieces; by little and little in succession. Piecemeal they win this acre first, then that. – Pope.

PIECE-MEAL-ED, a.

Divided into small pieces. – Cotgrave.

PIEC-ER, n.

One that pieces; a patcher.

PIEC-ING, ppr.

Enlarging; patching.

PIED, a. [allied probably to pie, in piebald, and a contracted word, perhaps from the root of L. pictus.]

Variegated with spots of different colors; spotted. We now apply the word chiefly or wholly to animals which are marked with large spots of different colors. If the spots are small, we use speckled. This distinction was not formerly observed, and in some cases, pied is elegantly used to express a diversity of colors in small spots. Meadows trim with daisies pied. – Milton.

PIED-NESS, n.

Diversity of colors in spots. – Shak.

PIEL-ED, a. [See Peel.]

Bald; bare.

PIE-POU-DRE, n. [Fr. pied, foot, and poudreux, dusty, from poudre, dust; or pied puldreaux, a pedlar.]

An ancient court of record in England, incident to every fair and market, of which the steward of him who owns has the toll, is the judge. It had jurisdiction of all causes arising in the fair or market. – Blackstone.

PIER, n. [Sax. per, pere; D. beer, steene beer. If this word is from the French pierre, it is a contraction of L. petra. But more probably it is not from the French.]

1. A mass of solid stone work for supporting an arch or the timbers of a bridge or other building.
2. A mass of stone work or a mole projecting into the sea, for breaking the force of the waves and making a safe harbor.
3. A part of the wall of a house between windows.

PIERCE, v.i.

1. To enter, as a pointed instrument.
2. To penetrate; to force a way into or through any thing. The shot pierced through the side of the ship. Her tears will pierce into a marble heart. – Shak.
3. To enter; to dive or penetrate, as into a secret. She would not pierce further into his meaning than himself should declare. – Sidney.
4. To affect deeply.