Definition of "piece" []

• A thing considered as a unit or an element of a larger thing, quantity, or class; a portion: a piece of string. (noun)
• A portion or part that has been separated from a whole: a piece of cake. (noun)
• An object that is one member of a group or class: a piece of furniture. (noun)
• An artistic, musical, or literary work or composition: "They are lively and well-plotted pieces, both in prose” ( Tucker Brooke). (noun)
• An instance; a specimen: a piece of sheer folly. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The seven shorts included all have winter and holiday themes, naturally, including the title piece and "Bitzer's New Hat," "Snowed In" and the like."
• "The main piece is a large rectangular cardboard box, which fits nicely between the patio steps and the unused western gate."
• "In the title piece of Steven Millhauser's collection of new and selected stories, "We Others" Knopf, 387 pages, $27.95 , the "we" refers to phantoms who infiltrate picket-fenced suburbia—becoming "the companions of lawn mowers in toolsheds, of gas grills beside tarp-covered woodpiles"—and who try in vain to join the lives of the people who live there."