pie
/paɪ/ noun, verb
Also a form of pye-dog
- noun A type of pastry that consists of an outer crust and a filling. (Savory pies are more popular in the UK and sweet pies are more popular in the US, so "pie" without qualification has different connotations in these dialects.) “The family had steak and kidney pie for dinner and cherry pie for dessert.”
- noun Any of various other, non-pastry dishes that maintain the general concept of a shell with a filling. “Shepherd's pie is made of mince covered with mashed potato.”
- noun (Northeastern US) A pizza.
- noun A paper plate covered in cream, shaving foam or custard that is thrown or rubbed in someone’s face for comical purposes, to raise money for charity, or as a form of political protest; a custard pie; a cream pie.
- noun (figuratively) The whole of a wealth or resource, to be divided in parts.
- noun (cricket) An especially badly bowled ball.
- noun A pie chart.
- noun (informal) Something very easy; a piece of cake.
- verb (transitive) To hit in the face with a pie, either for comic effect or as a means of protest (see also pieing). “I'd like to see someone pie the chairman of the board.”
- verb (transitive) To go around (a corner) in a guarded manner.
- verb (transitive, UK, slang, often followed by off) To ignore (someone).
- noun (obsolete) Magpie.
- noun (historical) A former low-denomination coin of northern India.
- noun (historical) A traditional Spanish unit of length, equivalent to about 27.9 cm.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English pye, pie, pey (“baked dish, filled pastry”), possibly attested earlier (c. 1199) in the surname Piehus (“pie-house?”). Further origin uncertain.
Relation to Middle English pie, pye (“magpie”) has been suggested due to correspondences between other similar foods and the names of birds (compare haggis (“Scottish dish”) and haggess (“magpie”); and chewet (“meat pie”) and chewet (“chough, jackdaw”); however, the baked dish may instead be named after a creator with the surname Pie, a common name at the time.
The surname is ultimately derived from the bird above, and thus from Old French pie, from Latin pīca (“magpie”). If true, then doublet of speight.
From Middle English pye, from Old French pie, from Latin pīca, feminine of pīcus (“woodpecker”). Doublet of pica and speight.
From Hindi पाई (pāī, “low-denomination coin”), from Sanskrit पादिका (pādikā, “foot, shoe”), from पाद (pāda, “foot, base, quarter”) + -इक (-ika, “-ic: forming adjectives”).
From Spanish pie (“foot, Spanish foot”). Doublet of foot, pes, and pous.
Webster’s 1913
- noun An article of food consisting of paste baked with something in it or under it; as, chicken pie; venison pie; mince pie; apple pie; pumpkin pie.
- noun See Camp, n., 5. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell. Pie crust, the paste of a pie.
- noun (a) A magpie.
- noun The service book.
Etymology [OE. pie, pye; cf. Ir. & Gael. pighe pie, also Gael. pige an earthen jar or pot. Cf. Piggin.]
Etymology [F. pie, L. pica; cf. picus woodpecker, pingere to paint; the bird being perhaps named from its colors. Cf. Pi, Paint, Speight.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pie”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details