pie
A type of food made with meat, vegetables, or fruit covered in pastry and baked
Would you like some more apple pie?
Oxford Essential Dictionary
pie
noun
a type of food made of meat, fruit or vegetables covered with pastry (= a mixture of flour, butter and water):
an apple pie
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
pie
pie S2 /paɪ/ BrE AmE noun [uncountable and countable]
[Date: 1300-1400; Origin: Perhaps from pie 'magpie' ( ⇨ ↑magpie); because the different things in a pie are like the different things a magpie collects]
1. fruit baked inside a ↑pastry covering
slice/piece of pie
Would you like another piece of apple pie?
2. British English meat or vegetables baked inside a ↑pastry or potato covering:
I had steak and kidney pie with chips.
3. slice/share/piece of the pie a share of something such as money, profits etc:
The smaller companies want a bigger share of the pie.
4. pie in the sky something good that someone says will happen, but which you think is impossible or unlikely:
Hope of a cure is just pie in the sky. ⇨ ↑mud pie, ↑pie chart, ⇨ easy as pie at ↑easy1(1), ⇨ eat humble pie at ↑humble1(6), ⇨ have a finger in every pie at ↑finger1(7), ⇨ be as nice as pie at ↑nice(11)
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
pie
pie [pie pies pied pieing] [paɪ] [paɪ] noun countable, uncountable
1. fruit baked in a dish with pastry on the bottom, sides and top
• a slice of apple pie
• Help yourself to some more pie.
• a pie dish
see also custard pie
2. (especially BrE) meat, vegetables, etc. baked in a dish with pastry on the bottom, sides and top
• a steak and kidney pie
see also mince pie, pork pie, shepherd's pie
more at as American as apple pie at American adj., as easy as pie at easy adj., eat humble pie at eat, have a finger in every pie at finger n., as nice as pie at nice
Idioms: pie in the sky ▪ piece of the pie
Word Origin:
Middle English: probably the same word as pie, used in the naming of birds; the various combinations of ingredients being compared to objects randomly collected by a magpie.
Example Bank:
• What's the filling in these pies?
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 4th Edition
pie / paɪ / noun [ C or U ]
pie
B1 a type of food made with meat, vegetables, or fruit covered in pastry and baked:
Would you like some more steak pie?
a pecan pie
© Cambridge University Press 2013
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary
pie
/paɪ/
(pies)
1.
A pie consists of meat, vegetables, or fruit baked in pastry.
...a pork pie.
...apple pie and custard.
N-VAR
see also cottage pie, shepherd’s pie
2.
If you describe an idea, plan, or promise of something good as pie in the sky, you mean that you think that it is very unlikely to happen.
The true regeneration of devastated Docklands seemed like pie in the sky...
to eat humble pie: see humble
PHRASE: usu v-link PHR
Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's Dictionary
pie
pie /ˈpaɪ/ noun, pl pies : a food that consists of a pastry crust that is filled with fruit, meat, etc.
[count]
• The bakery sells pies and cakes.
[noncount]
• Would you like a piece/slice of apple pie?
• I would like some pie.
• a pie plate [=a dish used for holding a pie]
- see picture at baking; see also boston cream pie, potpie, shepherd's pie
a piece/slice/share of the pie : a portion of a particular amount of money
• The state needs to give public schools a larger piece of the pie. [=the state needs to give public schools more funds]
• He's the best player on the team and he wants a bigger slice of the pie. [=he wants more money]
(as) easy as pie
- see 1easy
eat humble pie
- see eat
have a finger in a/the pie
- see 1finger
- see also cow pie, cutie-pie, pie chart, pie in the sky, sweetie pie
