Noun

(en noun)

A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.

A single item belonging to a class of similar items: as, for example, a piece of machinery, a piece of software.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].}}

(chess) One of the figures used in playing chess, specifically a higher-value figure as distinguished from a pawn; by extension, a similar counter etc. in other games.

* 1959 , (Hans Kmoch), Pawn Power in Chess , I:

Pawns, unlike pieces , move only in one direction: forward.

A coin, especially one valued at less than the principal unit of currency.

a sixpenny piece

An artistic creation, such as a painting, sculpture, musical composition, literary work, etc.

An artillery gun.

(US, Canada, colloquial) (short for hairpiece); a toupee or wig, usually when worn by a man.

A slice or other quantity of bread, eaten on its own; a sandwich or light snack.

* 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 46:

My grannie came and gived them all a piece and jam and cups of water then I was to bring them back out to the street and play a game.

(US, colloquial) A gun.

(US, colloquial, vulgar) A sexual encounter; from piece of ass or piece of tail

(US, colloquial, mildly, vulgar) (short for "piece of crap") a shoddy or worthless object, usually applied to consumer products like vehicles or appliances.

(US, slang) A cannabis pipe.

(baseball) Used to describe a pitch that has been hit but not well, usually either being caught by the opposing team or going foul. Usually used in the past tense with got, and never used in the plural.

(dated, sometimes, derogatory) An individual; a person.

* Sir Philip Sidney

If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him.

* Shakespeare

Thy mother was a piece of virtue.

* Coleridge

His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world.

(obsolete) A castle; a fortified building.

(Spenser)

(US) A pacifier.

Noun

(en noun)

That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)

, volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […], "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.}}

A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.

An individual object or distinct entity.

(informal) Something that is normal or generally recognised.

(legal) Whatever can be owned.

The latest fad or fashion.

(in the plural) Clothes, possessions or equipment.

(informal) A unit or container, usually containing edible goods.

(informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor.

(slang) A penis.

* 1959 , , (Naked Lunch) , 50th anniversary edition (2009), p. 126:

“Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing .”

A living being or creature.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}

That which matters; the crux.

* 1914 , Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, The Movie Man] [playscript:

Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing . (in reference to the execution of Fernandez)

(chiefly, historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.

* 1974 , Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga , translated by Haraldur Bessason, page 46:

In accordance with Old Germanic custom men came to the thing fully armed, [...]

* 1974', Jakob Benediktsson, ''Landnám og upphaf allsherjarríkis'', in ''Saga Íslands'', quoted in '''1988 by Jesse L. Byock in ''Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 85:

The goðar'' seem both to have received payment of ''thing-fararkaup from those who stayed home and at the same time compensated those who went to the thing , and it cannot be seen whether they had any profit from these transactions.

* 1988 , Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 59:

All Icelandic things were skap-thing , meaning that they were governed by established procedure and met at regular legally designated intevals at predetermined meeting places.