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What is "of a piece"

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Of a piece

Piece \Piece\, n. [OE. pece, F. pi[`e]ce, LL. pecia, petia, petium, probably of Celtic origin; cf. W. peth a thing, a part, portion, a little, Armor. pez, Gael. & Ir. cuid part, share. Cf. Petty.]

  1. A fragment or part of anything separated from the whole, in any manner, as by cutting, splitting, breaking, or tearing; a part; a portion; as, a piece of sugar; to break in pieces.

    Bring it out piece by piece.
    --Ezek. xxiv. 6.

  2. A definite portion or quantity, as of goods or work; as, a piece of broadcloth; a piece of wall paper.

  3. Any one thing conceived of as apart from other things of the same kind; an individual article; a distinct single effort of a series; a definite performance; especially:

    1. A literary or artistic composition; as, a piece of poetry, music, or statuary.

    2. A musket, gun, or cannon; as, a battery of six pieces; a following piece.

    3. A coin; as, a sixpenny piece; -- formerly applied specifically to an English gold coin worth 22 shillings.

    4. A fact; an item; as, a piece of news; a piece of knowledge.

  4. An individual; -- applied to a person as being of a certain nature or quality; often, but not always, used slightingly or in contempt. ``If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him.''
    --Sir P. Sidney.

    Thy mother was a piece of virtue.
    --Shak.

    His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world.
    --Coleridge.

  5. (Chess) One of the superior men, distinguished from a pawn.

  6. A castle; a fortified building. [Obs.]
    --Spenser.

    Of a piece, of the same sort, as if taken from the same whole; like; -- sometimes followed by with.
    --Dryden.

    Piece of eight, the Spanish piaster, formerly divided into eight reals.

    To give a piece of one's mind to, to speak plainly, bluntly, or severely to (another).
    --Thackeray.

    Piece broker, one who buys shreds and remnants of cloth to sell again.

    Piece goods, goods usually sold by pieces or fixed portions, as shirtings, calicoes, sheetings, and the like.

Wiktionary
of a piece

prep.phr. 1 (&lit of a piece English) 2 (context idiomatic English) Of the same kind.

Usage examples of "of a piece".

I was not hearing the wonderful sound but feeling it in the pulse of a piece of clay, and then I was in my old classroom in the monastery and a bunch of boys were looking at me with eyes like owls and I was desperately trying to explain something very important.

Now, the coats their father had left them were, 'tis true, of very good cloth, and besides, so neatly sewn, you would swear they were all of a piece.

Her cheeks had sunken where she'd lost teeth, and the sickly gray of her skin made me think of a piece of sashimi left on the plate overnight.

Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper.

We have no idea who the Askoth is, but he was behind the securing of a piece of the Straight Gate only last month.

The vital difference between the game played with living men and that in which inanimate pieces are used, lies in the fact that while in the latter the mere placing of a piece upon a square occupied by an opponent piece terminates the move, in the former the two pieces thus brought together engage in a duel for possession of the square.

When she saw Ayla pulling at one end of a piece of hide while the baby lion held the other end in his teeth, shaking his head and snarling, the horse's natural curiosity got the better of her.

In furnishings, it was basic: chairs, a table and a filing cabinet, lit by a naked light bulb which dangled from the ceiling at the end of a piece of string.