pie

Noun

pie (countable and uncountable, plural pies)

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.)

   The family had steak and kidney pie for dinner and cherry pie for dessert.

   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     SATURNINUS: Go fetch them hither to us presently.
     TITUS: Why, there they are, both baked in that pie,
     Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
     Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.

2. Any of various other, non-pastry dishes that maintain the general concept of a shell with a filling.

   Shepherd's pie is made of mince covered with mashed potato.

3. (Northeastern US) 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. (figuratively) The whole of a wealth or resource, to be divided in parts.
   • 2010 December 4, Evan Thomas, “Why It’s Time to Worry”, in Newsweek‎:

     It is easier to get along when everyone, more or less, is getting ahead. But when the pie is shrinking, social groups are more likely to turn on each other.

6. (cricket) An especially badly bowled ball.
7. A pie chart.
   • 1986, Carolyn Sorensen, Henry J. Stock, Department of Education Computer Graphics Guide, page 8:

     Pies are best for comparing the components of only one or two totals.

8. (informal) Something very easy; a piece of cake.
   • 1989, PC Mag, volume 8, number 5, page 91:

     Programmers haven't exactly been wild about certain Microsoft policies — such as the price of the OS/2 developer's kit or the fib about how Microsoft Windows code would be pie to translate to the Presentation Manager.

9. (slang) The vulva.
   • 1981, William Kotzwinkle, Jack in the Box:

     "Yeah, take it off!" "SHOW US YOUR PIE!" The brunette opened the catch on her G-string and let the sequinned cloth slip down, teasing them with it.

   • 2010, W. A. Moltinghorne, Magnolia Park, page 238:

     Yeah, some guys like to eat the old hairy pie. Women, too, or so I've heard.

10. (slang) A kilogram of drugs, especially cocaine.
    • 1997 January 3, “Can't Nobody Hold Me Down”‎performed by Sean Combs ft. Mase:

      Did fed time outta town pie flipper / Turn Cristal into a crooked-I sipper

    • [1998 October 18, “Ebonics”‎performed by Big L:

      My weed smoke is my lye, a ki of coke is a pie / When I'm lifted I'm high, with new clothes on I'm fly]

    • 1999 July 13, “Discipline”‎performed by Gang Starr ft. Total:

      I love the cutie pies, never the zootie pies

Verb

pie (third-person singular simple present pies, present participle pieing, simple past and past participle pied)

1. (transitive) To hit in the face with a pie, either for comic effect or as a means of protest (see also pieing).

   I'd like to see someone pie the chairman of the board.

2. (transitive) To go around (a corner) in a guarded manner.
4. (transitive, UK, slang, often followed by off) To ignore (someone).
   • 2017, Marcel Somerville, Dr Marcel's Little Book of Big Love: Your Guide to Finding Love, the Island Way, London: Blink Publishing, →ISBN, page 50:

     Some of my friends drop everyone out as soon as they get a girlfriend, and they alienate people. Or they stop going out to the gym and doing things they love because they're all about the other person. When you do that you're sacrificing yourself and you will be left with nothing if you split up. You'll have to start again and get back in contact with all your mates you've pied off. Shame.

   • 2018 September 18, @_kirstenanna, Twitter‎, archived from the original on 27 January 2024:

     just my luck been put in a presentation group at uni with a guy I pied on tinder last week HAHA gud

Noun

pie (plural pies)

2. (obsolete) Magpie.

Noun

pie (plural pie or pies)

1. (historical) A former low-denomination coin of northern India.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes”, in The Phantom ’Rickshaw and Other Tales, Folio Society, published 2005, page 117:

     I gave him all the money in my possession, Rs.9.8.5. – nine rupees, eight annas, and five pie – for I always keep small change as bakshish when I am in camp.

Noun

pie (plural pies)

1. (zoology) Ellipsis of pie-dog: an Indian breed, a stray dog in Indian contexts.

Noun

pie (plural pies)

1. (historical) A traditional Spanish unit of length, equivalent to about 27.9 cm.

   Synonym: foot (in Spanish contexts)

Noun

pie

1. (letterpress typography) Alternative form of pi (“metal type that has been spilled, mixed together, or disordered”)

Verb

pie (third-person singular simple present pies, present participle pieing, simple past and past participle pied)

1. (transitive) Alternative form of pi (“to spill or mix printing type”)
   • 1943, Esther Forbes Hoskins, Johnny Tremain:

     The door of the [printing] shop was shattered. He went in. The presses were broken. The type pied.

Related terms

• peón

Derived terms

• bavard comme une pie
• fromage à la pie
• pie bavarde