Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a baked food having a filling of fruit, meat, pudding, etc., prepared in a pastry-lined pan or dish and often topped with a pastry crust: apple pie; meat pie.
- a layer cake with a filling of custard, cream jelly, or the like: chocolate cream pie.
- a total or whole that can be divided: They want a bigger part of the profit pie.
- an activity or affair: He has his finger in the political pie too.
- pizza.
- easy as pie, extremely easy or simple.
- nice as pie, extremely well-behaved, agreeable, or the like: The children were nice as pie.
- pie in the sky,
- the illusory prospect of future benefits: Political promises are often pie in the sky.
- a state of perfect happiness; utopia: to promise pie in the sky.
noun
- a baked food consisting of a sweet or savoury filling in a pastry-lined dish, often covered with a pastry crust
- have a finger in the pie
- to have an interest in or take part in some activity
- to meddle or interfere
- pie in the sky illusory hope or promise of some future good; false optimism
noun
- an archaic or dialect name for magpie
noun, verb
- printing a variant spelling of pi 2
noun
- a very small former Indian coin worth one third of a pice
noun
- history a book for finding the Church service for any particular day
adjective
- be pie on NZ informal to be keen on
“pastry,” mid-14c. (probably older; piehus “bakery” is attested from late 12c.), from Medieval Latin pie “meat or fish enclosed in pastry” (c.1300), perhaps related to Medieval Latin pia “pie, pastry,” also possibly connected with pica “magpie” (see pie (n.2)) on notion of the bird’s habit of collecting miscellaneous objects. Figurative of “something to be shared out” by 1967.
According to OED, not known outside English, except Gaelic pighe, which is from English. In the Middle Ages, a pie had many ingredients, a pastry but one. Fruit pies began to appear c.1600. Figurative sense of “something easy” is from 1889. Pie-eyed “drunk” is from 1904. Phrase pie in the sky is 1911, from Joe Hill’s Wobbly parody of hymns. Pieman is not attested earlier than the nursery rhyme “Simple Simon” (c.1820). Pie chart is from 1922.
“magpie,” mid-13c. (late 12c. as a surname), from Old French pie (13c.), from Latin pica “magpie” (see magpie). In 16c., a wily pie was a “cunning person.”
also pi, printers’ slang for “a mass of type jumbled together” (also pi, pye), 1650s, perhaps from pie (n.1) on notion of a “medley,” or pie (n.2); cf. pica (n.1). As a verb from 1870. Related: Pied.
Also, easy as falling or rolling off a log. Capable of being accomplished with no difficulty, as in This crossword puzzle is easy as pie. The first term presumably alludes to consuming pie (since making pie requires both effort and expertise). The variants most likely allude to standing on a log that is moving downstream, a feat in which falling off is a lot easier than remaining upright. Mark Twain had it in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889): “I could do it as easy as rolling off a log.” The first colloquial term dates from the early 1900s, the colloquial variants from the 1830s. For a synonym, see piece of cake.
In addition to the idiom beginning with pie
- pie in the sky
also see:
- apple-pie order
- easy as pie
- eat crow (humble pie)
- finger in the pie
- slice of the pie