English Explanatory Dictionary

pie

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. 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.)
  2. Any of various other, non-pastry dishes that maintain the general concept of a shell with a filling.
  3. A pizza.
  4. 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.
  5. The whole of a wealth or resource, to be divided in parts.
  6. An especially badly bowled ball.
  7. A pie chart.
  8. Something very easy; a piece of cake.
  9. The vulva.
  10. A kilogram of drugs, especially cocaine.
verb
  1. To hit in the face with a pie, either for comic effect or as a means of protest (see also pieing).
  2. To go around (a corner) in a guarded manner.
  3. To ignore (someone).
noun
  1. Magpie.
noun
  1. A former low-denomination coin of northern India.
noun
  1. Ellipsis of pie-dog (“an Indian breed, a stray dog in Indian contexts”).
noun
  1. A traditional Spanish unit of length, equivalent to about 27.9 cm.
noun
  1. Alternative form of pi (“metal type that has been spilled, mixed together, or disordered”).
verb
  1. Alternative form of pi (“to spill or mix printing type”).
name
  1. Initialism of Proto-Indo-European.
adj
  1. Initialism of Proto-Indo-European.
noun
  1. Initialism of public-interest entity.
name
  1. Initialism of Pan Island Expressway.
name
  1. Initialism of Paedophile Information Exchange.

Pronunciation

pī /paɪ/ en-us-pie.ogg /pɑɪ/ en-au-pie.ogg pē-ī-ē /piː.aɪ.iː/

Word forms

pie pies pieing pied

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.

Synonyms

foot

Related words

pastie pasty kueh pie tee IE

Derived words

aloo pie American as apple pie American pie angel pie apple pie apple-pie apple-pie bed apple-pie order Australian as a meat pie banoffee pie battalia pie bean pie black-bottom pie black bottom pie blueberry pie Bob Andy pie Boston cream pie bran pie buko pie butter pie by cock and pie cap-a-pie cap-à-pie cherry pie chess pie chiffon pie Chinese pie choco pie Christmas pie Christmaspie cottage pie cowpie cow pie cream pie Cumberland pie custard pie custard-pie cutie-pie cutie pie Devizes pie Devon pie dirt pie easy as pie eat humble pie English as apple pie Eskimo pie fidget pie finger in the pie finger pie fisherman's pie flapper pie fly pie football pie frankenpie fried pie Frito pie fry pie funeral pie fur pie gala pie
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on P Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary