Part 269

2. Piece by piece; by little and little in succession.

Piecemeal they win, this acre first, than that.

Pope.

Piece"meal`, a. Made up of parts or pieces; single; separate. "These piecemeal guilts." Gov. of Tongue.

Piece"meal`, n. A fragment; a scrap. R. Vaughan.

Piece"mealed` (?), a. Divided into pieces.

Piece"ner (?), n. 1. One who supplies rolls of wool to the slubbing machine in woolen mills.

2. Same as Piecer, 2.

Pie"cer (?), n. 1. One who pieces; a patcher.

2. A child employed in spinning mill to tie together broken threads.

Piece"work` (?), n. Work done by the piece or job; work paid for at a rate based on the amount of work done, rather than on the time employed.

The reaping was piecework, at so much per acre.

R. Jefferies.

Pied (?), imp. & p. p. of Pi, or Pie, v.

Pied (?), a. [From Pie the party- colored bird.] Variegated with spots of different colors; party- colored; spotted; piebald. "Pied coats." Burton. "Meadows trim with daisies pied." Milton.

Pied antelope (Zoˆl.), the bontebok. -- Pied-billed grebe (Zoˆl.), the dabchick. -- Pied blackbird (Zoˆl.), any Asiatic thrush of the genus Turdulus. -- Pied finch (Zoˆl.) (a) The chaffinch. (b) The snow bunting. [Prov. Eng.] -- Pied flycatcher (Zoˆl.), a common European flycatcher (Ficedula atricapilla). The male is black and white.

Pied"mont (?), a. [F. pied foot + mont mountain.] (Geol.) Noting the region of foothills near the base of a mountain chain.

Pied"mont*ite (?), n. (Min.) A manganesian kind of epidote, from Piedmont. See Epidote.

Pied"ness (?), n. The state of being pied. Shak.

||PiÈ`douche" (?), n. [F., fr. It. peduccio console, corbel.] A ||pedestal of small size, used to support small objects, as busts, ||vases, and the like.

Pied"stall (?), n. See Pedestal. [Obs.]

Pie"man (?), n.; pl. Piemen (&?;). A man who makes or sells pies.

Piend (?), n. [Cf. Dan. pind a peg.] See Peen.

||Pi*e"no (?), a. [It., fr. L. plenus full.] (Mus.) Full; having all ||the instruments.

Pie"plant` (?), n. (Bot.) A plant (Rheum Rhaponticum) the leafstalks of which are acid, and are used in making pies; the garden rhubarb.

{ Pie"pou`dre, Pie"pow`der } (?), n. [Lit., dustyfoot, i. e., dusty-footed dealers, fr. F. pied foot + poudreux dusty.] (O. Eng. Law) An ancient court of record in England, formerly incident to every fair and market, of which the steward of him who owned or had the toll was the judge. Blackstone.

Pier (?), n. [OE. pere, OF. piere a stone, F. pierre, fr. L. petra, Gr. &?;. Cf. Petrify.] 1. (Arch.) (a) Any detached mass of masonry, whether insulated or supporting one side of an arch or lintel, as of a bridge; the piece of wall between two openings. (b) Any additional or auxiliary mass of masonry used to stiffen a wall. See Buttress.

2. A projecting wharf or landing place.