What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Work vs Piece - What's the difference?

work | piece | Related terms |

Work is a related term of piece.


As nouns the difference between work and piece

is that work is employment while piece is room (in a house, etc).

As a verb work

is to do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.

work

English

(wikipedia work)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) worc, weorc, . English cognates include bulwark, energy, erg, georgic, liturgy, metallurgy, organ, surgeon, wright.

Noun

  • Employment.
  • #Labour, occupation, job.
  • #:
  • #*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • #*:Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand / That you yet know not of.
  • #*Bible, 2 (w) xxxi. 21
  • #*:In every work that he beganhe did it with all his heart, and prospered.
  • #*, chapter=15
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.}}
  • #The place where one is employed.
  • #:
  • Effort.
  • #Effort expended on a particular task.
  • #:
  • ##Sustained human effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result.
  • ##:
  • #(lb) A measure of energy expended in moving an object; most commonly, force times distance. No work is done if the object does not move.
  • #:
  • #*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , title= The Adaptable Gas Turbine , passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo , meaning "vortex", and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work .}}
  • #(lb) A nonthermal First Law energy in transit between one form or repository and another. Also, a means of accomplishing such transit. See http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0004055.
  • Sustained effort to achieve a goal or result, especially overcoming obstacles.
  • :
  • *
  • *:The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
  • (lb) Product; the result of effort.
  • # The result of a particular manner of production.
  • #:
  • # Something produced using the specified material or tool.
  • #:
  • #(lb) A literary, artistic, or intellectual production.
  • #:
  • #:
  • #*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • #*:to leave no rubs or blotches in the work
  • #*(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • #*:The work some praise, / And some the architect.
  • #*
  • #*:“[…] We are engaged in a great work , a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?”
  • #(lb) A fortification.
  • #:
  • The staging of events to appear as real.
  • (lb) Ore before it is dressed.
  • :(Raymond)
  • Synonyms
    * (employment) See also * (productive activity) See also
    Derived terms
    * artwork * at work * body of work * bodywork * breastwork * bridgework * busy work * casework * clockwork * derivative work * dirty work * dreamwork * earthwork * field work, fieldwork * finger work * firework * fretwork * groundwork * guesswork * hard work * handiwork * homework * housework * ironwork * leg work, legwork * lifework * masterwork * needlework * openwork * overwork * paintwork * paperwork * patchwork * piece of work * piecework * public works * reference work * road work, roadwork * schoolwork * shift work, shiftwork * spadework * teamwork * waterworks * waxwork * wickerwork * woodwork * work ethic * work of art * worklist * workly * workout * workplace * workroom * workshop * workstation * workstead * workup

    See also

    * -ing

    References

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

  • To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.
  • # Followed by in'' (or ''at , etc.) Said of one's workplace (building), or one's department, or one's trade (sphere of business).
  • I work''' in a national park;  she '''works''' in the human resources department;  he mostly '''works in logging, but sometimes works in carpentry
  • # Followed by as . Said of one's job title
  • #* , chapter=17
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.}}
  • I work as a cleaner.
  • # Followed by for . Said of a company or individual who employs.
  • she works''' for Microsoft;  he '''works for the president
  • # Followed by with . General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients.
  • I work''' closely with my Canadian counterparts;  you '''work''' with computers;  she '''works with the homeless people from the suburbs
  • To effect by gradual degrees.
  • he worked''' his way through the crowd;  the dye '''worked''' its way through;  using some tweezers, she '''worked the bee sting out of her hand
  • * Addison
  • So the pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains / Of rushing torrents and descending rains, / Works itself clear, and as it runs, refines, / Till by degrees the floating mirror shines.
  • To embroider with thread.
  • To set into action.
  • To cause to ferment.
  • To ferment.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • the working of beer when the barm is put in
  • To exhaust, by working.
  • To shape, form, or improve a material.
  • To operate in a certain place, area, or speciality.
  • To operate in or through; as, to work the phones.
  • To provoke or excite; to influence.
  • To use or manipulate to one’s advantage.
  • To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.
  • To cause to work.
  • To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for.
  • * {{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
  • (figuratively) To influence.
  • To effect by gradual degrees; as, to work into the earth.
  • To move in an agitated manner.
  • A ship works in a heavy sea.
  • * Addison
  • confused with working sands and rolling waves
  • To behave in a certain way when handled;
  • (transitive, with two objects, poetic) To cause (someone) to feel (something).
  • * {{quote-book, passage=So sad it seemed, and its cheek-bones gleamed, and its fingers flicked the shore; / And it lapped and lay in a weary way, and its hands met to implore; / That I gently said: “Poor, restless dead, I would never work you woe; / Though the wrong you rue you can ne’er undo, I forgave you long ago.”
  • , author=Robert W. Service , title=(Ballads of a Cheechako), chapter=(The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike), year=1909}}
  • (obsolete) To hurt; to ache.
  • * 1485 , Sir (Thomas Malory), ''(w, Le Morte d'Arthur), Book XXI:
  • ‘I wolde hit were so,’ seyde the Kynge, ‘but I may nat stonde, my hede worchys so—’
    Derived terms
    * work at * work off * work on * work out * work over * work up * rework * worker * working * work it * work like a beaver * work like a charm * work like a dog * work like a horse * work like a Trojan * work the crowd * work the room * work to rule * work wonders

    piece

    English

    Alternative forms

    * peece (obsolete)

    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.
  • Synonyms

    * See also * See also

    Usage notes

    When used as a baseball term, the term is idiomatic in that the baseball is almost never broken into pieces. It is rare in modern baseball for the cover of a baseball to even partially tear loose. In professional baseball, several new, not previously played baseballs are used in each game. It could be argued that the phrase was never meant (not even metaphorically) to refer to breaking the ball into pieces, and that "get a piece of the ball" means the bat contacts only a small area of the ball - in other words, that the ball is hit off-center. In that case "get" would mean "succeed in hitting", not "obtain".

    Derived terms

    * bits and pieces * piecemeal * piecen * piece of cake * piece of eight * piece of the action

    See also

    *

    See also

    * chunk * bit

    Verb

    (piec)
  • (transitive, usually, with together) To assemble (something real or figurative).
  • These clues allowed us to piece together the solution to the mystery.
  • * Fuller
  • His adversaries pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.
  • To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out .
  • to piece a garment
    (Shakespeare)
  • (slang) To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag.
  • * 2009 , Gregory J. Snyder, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground (page 40)
  • It is incorrect to say that toys tag and masters piece ; toys just do bad tags, bad throw-ups, and bad pieces.
  • * 2009 , Scape Martinez, GRAFF: The Art & Technique of Graffiti (page 124)
  • It is often used to collect other writer's tags, and future plans for bombing and piecing .

    Derived terms

    * piece together * repiece * unpiece 1000 English basic words ----