Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Patchy in color; splotched or piebald.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Party-colored; variegated with spots of different colors; spotted.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • imp. & p. p. of pi, or pie, v.
  • adjective Variegated with spots of different colors; party-colored; spotted; piebald.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) the bontebok.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) the dabchick.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) any Asiatic thrush of the genus Turdulus.
  • adjective (Zoöl.), [Prov. Eng.] The snow bunting.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) a common European flycatcher (Ficedula atricapilla). The male is black and white.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of pi.
  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of pie.
  • adjective Decorated or colored in blotches.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from pie, magpie; see pie.]

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Examples

  • A single case of type stood on a rack and the form of a bill-of-fare -- partly "pied" -- was on a marble slab which formed the top of a small table.

    Mary Louise and the Liberty Girls Alice [Illustrator] Carsey 1887

  • Maybe removing the whiteface platinum pearl hen from her yellow-white albino mate (also called pied) caused the disruption.

    Amorous cockatiels and marriage equality 2009

  • A gendarme a pied was the only person near me, and I asked him, if he could explain the reason of the movement.

    A Residence in France Cooper, J Fenimore 1836

  • A 2006 study in documented plummeting populations of a bird called the pied flycatcher in the Netherlands.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

  • A 2006 study in documented plummeting populations of a bird called the pied flycatcher in the Netherlands.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

  • I am proud of the fact that I seldom get to make a ski run alone, so I'm called a pied piper by some skiers.

    Vail Daily - Top Stories Warren Miller Vail 2010

  • A 2006 study in documented plummeting populations of a bird called the pied flycatcher in the Netherlands.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

  • A 2006 study in documented plummeting populations of a bird called the pied flycatcher in the Netherlands.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

  • A 2006 study in documented plummeting populations of a bird called the pied flycatcher in the Netherlands.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

  • A 2006 study in documented plummeting populations of a bird called the pied flycatcher in the Netherlands.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

  • But sometimes multiple words move left, a phenomenon the linguist John Roberts Ross PhD ’67 identified and called “pied piping” in his MIT dissertation.

    Have you heard about the “whom of which” trend? Peter Dizikes | MIT News 2023

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