pi c|ture rail (picture rails ) also picture-rail N‑COUNT A picture rail is a continuous narrow piece of wood which is fixed round a room just below the ceiling. Pictures can be hung from it using string and hooks. [mainly BRIT ]
pi c|ture show (picture shows ) N‑COUNT A picture show is a film shown at a cinema. [AM , OLD-FASHIONED ]
pic|tur|esque /p I ktʃəre sk/
1 ADJ A picturesque place is attractive and interesting, and has no ugly modern buildings. □ Alte, in the hills northwest of Loule, is the Algarve's most picturesque village. ● N‑SING You can refer to picturesque things as the picturesque . □ …lovers of the picturesque. ● pic|tur|esque|ly ADV □ …the shanty-towns perched picturesquely on the hillsides.
2 ADJ Picturesque words and expressions are unusual or poetic. □ Every inn had a picturesque name–the Black Locust Inn, the Blueberry Inn. ● pic|tur|esque|ly ADV [ADV with v] □ The historian Yakut described it picturesquely as a 'mother of castles'.
pi c|ture win|dow (picture windows ) N‑COUNT A picture window is a window containing one large sheet of glass, so that people have a good view of what is outside.
pid|dle /p I d ə l/ (piddles , piddling , piddled ) VERB To piddle means to urinate. [INFORMAL ]
pid|dling /p I dəl I ŋ/ ADJ [usu ADJ n] Piddling means small or unimportant. [INFORMAL ] □ …arguing over piddling amounts of money.
pidg|in /p I dʒ I n/ (pidgins )
1 N‑VAR Pidgin is a simple form of a language which speakers of a different language use to communicate. Pidgin is not anyone's first language. □ He's at ease speaking pidgin with the factory workers and guys on the docks.
2 ADJ [ADJ n] If someone is speaking their own language simply or another language badly and is trying to communicate, you can say that they are speaking, for example, pidgin English or pidgin Italian. □ The restaurant owner could only speak pidgin English.
pie /pa I / (pies )
1 N‑VAR A pie consists of meat, vegetables, or fruit baked in pastry. □ …a chicken pie. □ …apple pie and custard.
2 → see also cottage pie , shepherd's pie
3 PHRASE If you describe an idea, plan, or promise of something good as pie in the sky , you mean that you think that it is very unlikely to happen. □ The true regeneration of devastated Docklands seemed like pie in the sky.
4 to eat humble pie → see humble
pie|bald /pa I bɔːld/ ADJ A piebald animal has patches of black and white on it. □ …a piebald pony.
piece ◆◆◇ /piː s/ (pieces , piecing , pieced )
1 N‑COUNT A piece of something is an amount of it that has been broken off, torn off, or cut off. □ [+ of ] …a piece of cake. □ [+ of ] …a few words scrawled on a piece of paper. □ Cut the ham into pieces. □ Do you want another piece?
2 N‑COUNT A piece of an object is one of the individual parts or sections which it is made of, especially a part that can be removed. □ The equipment was taken down the shaft in pieces.
3 N‑COUNT A piece of land is an area of land. □ [+ of ] People struggle to get the best piece of land.
4 N‑COUNT You can use piece of with many uncount nouns to refer to an individual thing of a particular kind. For example, you can refer to some advice as a piece of advice . □ [+ of ] When I produced this piece of work, my lecturers were very critical. □ [+ of ] …an interesting piece of information. □ [+ of ] …a sturdy piece of furniture.
5 N‑COUNT You can refer to an article in a newspaper or magazine, some music written by someone, a broadcast, or a play as a piece . □ [+ on ] I disagreed with Andrew Russell over his piece on British Rail.
6 N‑COUNT You can refer to a work of art as a piece . [FORMAL ] □ Each piece is unique, an exquisite painting of a real person, done on ivory.
7 N‑COUNT You can refer to specific coins as pieces . For example, a 10p piece is a coin that is worth 10p.
8 N‑COUNT The pieces which you use when you play a board game such as chess are the specially made objects which you move around on the board.
9 QUANT A piece of something is part of it or a share of it. [AM ] □ [+ of ] They got a small piece of the net profits and a screen credit.
10 → see also museum piece , party piece , set piece
11 PHRASE If you give someone a piece of your mind , you tell them very clearly that you think they have behaved badly. [INFORMAL ] □ How very thoughtless. I'll give him a piece of my mind.
12 PHRASE If something with several different parts is all of a piece , each part is consistent with the others. If one thing is of a piece with another, it is consistent with it. □ At its peak in the Thirties, Underground design and architecture was all of a piece.
13 PHRASE If someone or something is still in one piece after a dangerous journey or experience, they are safe and not damaged or hurt. □ …providing that my brother gets back alive and in one piece from his mission.
14 PHRASE You use to pieces in expressions such as 'smash to pieces', and mainly in British English 'fall to pieces' or 'take something to pieces', when you are describing how something is broken or comes apart so that it is in separate pieces. □ If the shell had hit the boat, it would have blown it to pieces. □ Do you wear your old clothes until they fall to pieces?