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. 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.