King James Bible Dictionary

PIECE, noun [Heb. to cut off or clip.]

1. A fragment or part of any thing separated from the whole, in any manner, by cutting, splitting, breaking or tearing; as, to cut in pieces, break in pieces, tear in pieces, pull in pieces, etc.; a piece of a rock; a piece of paper.

2. A part of any thing, though not separated, or separated only in idea; not the whole; a portion; as a piece of excellent knowledge.

3. A distinct part or quantity; a part considered by itself, or separated from the rest only by a boundary or divisional line; as a piece of land in the meadow or on the mountain.

4. A separate part; a thing or portion distinct from others of a like kind; as a piece of timber; a piece of cloth; a piece of paper hangings.

5. A composition, essay or writing of no great length; as a piece of poetry or prose; a piece of music.

6. A separate performance; a distinct portion of labor; as a piece of work.

7. A picture or painting.

If unnatural, the finest colors are but daubing, and the piece is a beautiful monster at the best.

8. A coin; as a piece of eight.

9. A gun or single part of ordnance. We apply the word to a cannon, a mortar, or a musket. Large guns are called battering pieces; smaller guns are called field pieces.

10. In heraldry, an ordinary or charge. The fess, the bend, the pale, the bar, the cross, the saltier, the chevron are called honorable pieces.

11. In ridicule or contempt. A piece of a lawyer is a smatterer.

12. A castle; a building. [Not in use.]

A-piece, to each; as, he paid the men a dollar a-piece.

Of a piece like; of the same sort, as if taken from the same whole. They seemed all of a piece Sometimes followed by with.

The poet must be of a piece with the spectators to gain reputation.

PIECE, verb transitive To enlarge or mend by the addition of a piece; to patch; as, to piece a garment; to piece the time.

To piece out, to extend or enlarge by addition of a piece or pieces.

PIECE, verb intransitive To unite by coalescence of parts; to be compacted, as parts into a whole.

The rendering "pieces of gold," as in (2 Kings 5:5) is very doubtful; and "shekels of gold") as designating the value of the whole quantity, not individual pieces is preferable. Coined money was unknown in Palestine till the Persian period.

See Silver
Silver

I. In the Old Testament the word "pieces" is used in the Authorized Version for a word understood in the Hebrew (if we except) (Psalms 68:30) The phrase is always "a thousand," or the like, "of silver." (Genesis 20:16; 37:28; 45:28; Judges 9:4; 16:5; 2 Kings 6:25; Hosea 3:2; Zechariah 11:12,13) In similar passages the word "shekels" occurs in the Hebrew. There are other passages in which the Authorized Version supplies the word "shekels" instead of "pieces," (22:19,29; Judges 17:2,3,4,10; 2 Samuel 18:11,12) and of these the first two require this to be done. The shekel, be it remembered, was the common weight for money, and therefore most likely to be understood in an elliptical phrase. The "piece" or shekel of silver weighed 220 grains, or about half an ounce, and was worth a little more than half a dollar (55 cents). II. In the New Testament two words are rendered by the phrase "piece of silver:"

1. Drachma , (Luke 15:8,9) which was a Greek silver coin, equivalent, at the time of St. Luke, to the Roman denarias (15 or 16 cents).
2. Silver occurs only in the account of the betrayal of our Lord for "thirty pieces of silver." (Matthew 26:15; 17:3,5,6,9) It is difficult to ascertain what coins are here intended. If the most common silver pieces be meant, they would be denarii. The parallel passage in Zachariah, (Zechariah 11:12,13) must, however, be taken into consideration where shekels (worth about 55 cents) must be understood. It is more probable that the thirty pieces of silver were tetradrachms than that they were denarii (80 cents).

PIE'CED, participle passive Mended or enlarged by a piece or pieces.

PIE'CELESS, adjective Not made of pieces; consisting of an entire thing.

PIE'CEMEAL, adverb

1. In pieces; in fragments.

On which it piecemeal broke.

2. By pieces; by little and little in succession.

Piecemeal they win this acre first, then that.

PIE'CEMEAL, adjective Single; separate; made of parts or pieces.

PIE'CEMEALED, adjective Divided into small pieces.

PIE'CER, noun One that pieces; a patcher.

(1) of silver. In Psalms 68:30 denotes "fragments," and not properly money. In 1 Samuel 2:36 (Heb. agorah), properly a "small sum" as wages, weighed rather than coined. Joshua 24:32 (Heb. kesitah, q.v.), supposed by some to have been a piece of money bearing the figure of a lamb, but rather simply a certain amount. (Comp. Genesis 33:19).

2. The word pieces is omitted in many passages, as Genesis 20:16; 37:28; 45:22, etc. The passage in Zechariah 11:12, 13 is quoted in the Gospel (Matthew 26:15), and from this we know that the word to be supplied is "shekels." In all these omissions we may thus warrantably supply this word.

3. The "piece of money" mentioned in Matthew 17:27 is a stater=a Hebrew shekel, or four Greek drachmae; and that in Luke 15:8, 9, Acts 19:19, a Greek drachma=a denarius. (See PENNY.)