pie definition | Dictionary.com

pie

1 [pahy]

–noun

1.	a baked food having a filling of fruit, meat, pudding, etc., prepared in a pastry-lined pan or dish and often topped with a pastry crust: apple pie; meat pie.

2.	a layer cake with a filling of custard, cream jelly, or the like: chocolate cream pie.

3.	a total or whole that can be divided: They want a bigger part of the profit pie.

4.	an activity or affair: He has his finger in the political pie too.

pizza.

—Idioms

6.	easy as pie, extremely easy or simple.

7.	nice as pie, extremely well-behaved, agreeable, or the like: The children were nice as pie.

pie in the sky,

a.	the illusory prospect of future benefits: Political promises are often pie in the sky.

b.	a state of perfect happiness; utopia: to promise pie in the sky.

Origin:
1275–1325; ME, of obscure orig.

Related forms:

pielike, adjective

pie

2 [pahy]

–noun

magpie.

Origin:
1200–50; ME < OF < L pīca, akin to pīcus woodpecker

pie

3 [pahy]

–noun, verb (used with object), pied, pie⋅ing.

pi ² .

pie

4 [pahy]

–noun

(in England before the Reformation) a book of ecclesiastical rules for finding the particulars of the service for the day.

Also, pye.

Origin:
1470–80; trans. of L pīca pie ² ; the allusion is obscure; cf. pica ¹

pie

5 [pahy]

–noun

a former bronze coin of India, the 12th part of an anna.

Compare naya paisa, paisa, pice.

Origin:
1855–60; < Marathi pā'ī lit., a fourth

PIE

Proto-Indo-European.

pi

2 [pahy]

noun, plural pies, verb, pied, pi⋅ing.

–noun

1.	printing types mixed together indiscriminately.

2.	any confused mixture; jumble.

–verb (used with object)

3.	to reduce (printing types) to a state of confusion.

4.	to jumble.

Also, pie.

Origin:
1650–60; orig. uncert.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To pie

mag·pie (māg'pī')

Any of various birds of the family Corvidae found worldwide, having a long graduated tail and black, blue, or green plumage with white markings and noted for their chattering call. The species Pica pica, the black-billed magpie, is widespread in the Northern Hemisphere. Also called pie².
Any of various birds resembling the magpie, such as the Australian bell magpie of the family Cracticidae.
A person who chatters.
One who compulsively collects or hoards small objects.

[Mag, a name used in proverbs about chatterers (a nickname for Margaret) + pie².]

pi² also pie (pī)

n.   pl. pis also pies
An amount of type that has been jumbled or thrown together at random.
v.   pied (pīd) also pied, pi·ing also pie·ing, pies also pies

v.   tr.
To jumble or mix up (type).
v.   intr.
To become jumbled.

[Origin unknown.]

pie¹ (pī)

A baked food composed of a pastry shell filled with fruit, meat, cheese, or other ingredients, and usually covered with a pastry crust.
A layer cake having cream, custard, or jelly filling.
A whole that can be shared: "That would . . . enlarge the economic pie by making the most productive use of every investment dollar" (New York Times).

[Middle English.]

pie² (pī)

n. See magpie.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pīca.]

pie³ (pī)

n. A monetary unit formerly in use in India and Pakistan.

[Hindi pā'ī, from Sanskrit pādikā, quarter, from pāt, pad-, foot, leg; see ped- in Indo-European roots.]

pie⁴ (pī)

n. An almanac of services used in the English church before the Reformation.

[Medieval Latin pīca.]

pie⁵ (pī)

n. & v. Printing
Variant of pi².

PIE
abbr. Proto-Indo-European

Pro·to-In·do-Eur·o·pe·an (prō'tō-ĭn'dō-yŏŏr'ə-pē'ən)

n. The reconstructed language that was the ancestor of the Indo-European languages.
adj. Of, relating to, or being Proto-Indo-European or one of its reconstructed linguistic features.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Pie

Pie\, n. [OE. pie, pye; cf. Ir. & Gael. pighe pie, also Gael. pige an earthen jar or pot. Cf. Piggin.]

1. 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.

2. See Camp, n., 5. [Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell.

Pie crust, the paste of a pie.

Pie

Pie\, n. [F. pie, L. pica; cf. picus woodpecker, pingere to paint; the bird being perhaps named from its colors. Cf. Pi, Paint, Speight.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) (a) A magpie. (b) Any other species of the genus Pica, and of several allied genera. [Written also pye.]

2. (R. C. Ch.) The service book.

3. (Pritn.) Type confusedly mixed. See Pi.

By cock and pie, an adjuration equivalent to "by God and the service book." --Shak.

Tree pie (Zo["o]l.), any Asiatic bird of the genus Dendrocitta, allied to the magpie.

Wood pie. (Zo["o]l.) See French pie, under French.

Pie

Pie\, v. t. See Pi.

Language Translation for : pie

Spanish: tarta, empanada, pastel,

German: die Pastete,

Japanese: パイ

More Translations »

pie (1)

"pastry," 1303, from M.L. pie "meat or fish enclosed in pastry," perhaps related to M.L. pia "pie, pastry," also possibly connected with pica "magpie" (see pie (2)) on notion of the bird's habit of collecting miscellaneous objects. Not known outside Eng., except Gaelic pighe, which is from Eng. In the Middle Ages, a pie had many ingredients, a pastry but one. Fruit pies began to appear c.1600. Fig. sense of "something easy" is from 1889. Pie-eyed "drunk" is from 1904. Phrase pie in the sky is 1911, from Joe Hill's Wobbly parody of hymns. Pieman is not attested earlier than the nursery rhyme "Simple Simon" (c.1820).

pie (2)

"magpie," c.1250, from O.Fr. pie (13c.), from L. pica "magpie," related to picus "woodpecker," Umbrian peica "the magpie," Skt. pikah "Indian cuckoo," O.N. spætr, Ger. Specht "woodpecker" (see magpie).

pie (3)

printers' slang for "a mass of type jumbled together" (also pi, pye), 1659, perhaps from pie (1) on notion of a "medley," or pie (2) (see pica).

PIE
A language from CMU similar to Actus.
(1994-11-29)

pie

In addition to the idiom beginning with pie, also see apple-pie order; easy as pie; eat crow (humble pie); finger in the pie; slice of the pie.

PIE
Proto-Indo-European

pie

dish made by lining a shallow container with pastry and filling the container with a sweet or savoury mixture. A top crust may be added; the pie is baked until the crust is crisp and the filling is cooked through. Pies have been popular in the United States since colonial times, so much so that apple pie has become symbolic of traditional American home cooking. The typical American pie is round, 8-10 inches (20-25 cm) in diameter, 2-3 inches (5-8 cm) thick, and usually contains a sweet filling of fruit, custard, or a pastry cream. Some American specialties are pecan pie, pumpkin custard pie (traditionally served on Thanksgiving Day), lemon pie with a soft meringue topping, and shoofly pie, a Pennsylvania Dutch (see Pennsylvania German) pie with a rich filling containing molasses.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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