pie n.
1. in sexual contexts, like the foodstuff as ‘sweet’ and ‘good enough to eat’.
(a) (orig. US, also pye-corner) the vagina.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | A Merry Play in Farmer (1905) 86: But how say you, Sir John, was it good, your pie? | |
| Blind Beggar of Bednall-Green Act IV: You shall likewise see the amorous conceits and Love songs betwixt Captain Pod of Py-corner, and Mrs. Rump of Ram-alley. | |
| Your Five Gallants I i: As in one pie twenty may dip their sippits, so vpon one woman forty may consume their pattrimonies. | |
| Custom of the Country I i: A Surgeon [...] an excellent dissector, One that has cut up more young tender Lamb-pies. | |
| Rule a Wife II i: There was no wisdom in’t, to bid an Artist, An old seducer to a femal banquet, I can cut up my pye without your instructions. | |
 | Wits Recreations verse 310: She’s mine quoth th’other by Pye-corner law: / Where sticking once a pricke on what you buy / It’s then your owne, which no man must deny. | |
| Dozen of Drunkards 14: [Lusty Lawrence will] breake up every Bride Pie, ere it be well bak’d by Hymen. | |
| Laughing Mercury 25 Aug. - 8 Sept. 173: There is a Pye-Corner Cook this week to be roasted on a Butchers-prick in Smithfield-Round and after to be basted to death with Pig-sauce. | |
| Strange Newes 2: Peg. I meet with merry Hectors [...] they give me Pye-corner Law and Pye-corner Pay, and I am contented to the life. | |
| ‘The Rebells Reign’ in Rump Poems and Songs (1662) i 316: Martin and St. Johns [...] had each a finger i’th’ pye: Some for the Money, and some for the Conny. | |
| Caius Marius III 162: A Spark ... wou’d fane have a finger in the py ... but she, good soul, had as lieve hear of a Toad. | |
| Fifteen Real Comforts of Matrimony 39: One smooth Chinn’d Slipstring or other [...] makes a Pye-Corner Ensurance of his Affection upon her Belly. | |
| ‘Wenching Tanner’ in Pepys Ballads (1987) V 252: His finger straight was in the Pye. | |
| Married Beau II i: A sluttish Wench with a Dirt Pie. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 14 Apr. n.p.: Cully says it isn’t certain that she is fixed yet, and [...] he isn’t the only one who has had a finger in the pie. | |
| in Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 411: ‘Hole in the pie, hole in the puddin’, / Hole in the gal they call Sally Goodin.’ [...] Learned near Pineville, Missouri, about 1880. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Love me Sailor 21: The old man can [...] go below whenever he feels like a bit of passenger pie. | |
| Summer Glare 198: ‘I’ve got a strong suspicion [...] Stuart has a finger in the pie.’ ‘Which pie?’ Nell asked. ‘In Nancy’s pie of course.’. | |
| ‘Coming Down Again’ 🎵 Slip my tongue in somone else’s pie. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Filth 244: Let’s take a look at former W.P.C. Fulton’s hairy pie! | |
| Pound for Pound 277: Chicky continued to sleep alone. No pie, no poon. | |
| Running the Books 82: I’d kick myself in the ass, ass backwardz if I didn’t attempt to get the goodz, knowin’ that I wanted a piece of the pie. |
(b) a woman.
| [ | | Cocke Lorelles Bote Biii: That is colfys doughter the drunken koke A lusty pye basket]. |
| Interlude of Youth line 411: A little pretty nisot, Ye be well nice, God wot Ye be a little pretty pie. | |
| Iron Chest I ii: Peace, you pie! an you prate thus I’ll stop your mouth. |
(c) the anus.
| Cythera’s Hymnal 6: Some well-hung young man / Had a finger in her husband’s pie. |
(d) a fool [i.e one who is soft adj. (1)].
| [perf. Harry Champion] ‘Ginger you're balmy’ 🎵 'With nothing on your napper, Oh, you are a pie! |
(e) a term of affection.
| Why Are We in Vietnam? (1970) 16: Tell me why, pie. |
(f) (US campus) an attractive, sexually desirable woman; also used derog.
| Rock 44: ‘How’d you like Thelma?’ ‘That pie was too easy.’. | |
| Current Sl. I:4 2/1: Pie, n. ‘Typical’ college girl, bouffant hairdo, too much make-up. | |
| ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 63: I’ve got to get me some pie for the weekend. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 92: A profound piece of passion pie one moment, a wilful shrew the next. What a body! |
2. in sense of a ‘pie’ that can be cut up or distributed.
(a) political or other patronage or favours.
| Daily Tel. 26 Dec. n.p.: Men may come and men may go; the Grant ‘Boom’ may be succeeded by the Sherman ‘Boom;’ but Pie goes on for ever [DA]. | |
| in N.Y. Press Nov. in Stallman (1966) 105: Strong’s [i.e. mayor of NYC] got a regular pie. | |
| N.Y. Times 15 Dec. 3: When his constituents asked him why he could not secure more routes [for postal free delivery] the only reply he could make was that he could not get up to the ‘pie counter’ [DA]. | |
| N.Y. Times 12 May n.p.: Take your tribute but buy national defense with it, don’t waste it in ‘pork’ and ‘pie’ and Populist lunacies! [DA]. | |
| Price of Murder (1978) 180: He got it hauled free by giving the trucker a piece of the pie. |
(b) (orig. US) a treat, a bribe, something highly desirable.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 7/3: Those most valiant and efficient protectors of the peace, and pies (especially pies), Constables Delap and Bennet, who made the clever arrest, testified that the crib had been cracked in a masterful way. | |
| N.Y. Mercury 3 Jan. in (1909) 196/1: At the depot the light was dim, and so it was in the sleeper, as it generally is; but as she got into the car a neat leg in a white stocking showed plainly enough to make Jim murmur to himself, ‘Well, this is pie.’. | |
| Confessions of Convict 143: None but moneyed swells are her pie. |
(c) money, or a person or activity that generates it.
| Boss 175: It’ ag’inst my religion to let anybody grab off a bigger piece of pie than I do when him an’ me is pals. | |
| Sporting Times 15 Apr. 2/3: The old man moseys west’ard with the sickenin’ feelin’ that he’s goin’ to be pie to a member o’ the class that wouldn’t look at him if it wasn’t paid to. | |
| Young People’s Pride 14: All you have to do is sell your serial rights. After that – pie. | |
| Lead With Your Left (1958) 27: Started to cut into the big pie but got himself killed. | |
| Black and White Baby 150: Len and Bookie were continually on guard against my being appropriated by another agent or some fast-moving impresario. [...] They didn’t want anybody else nibbling on the pie. | |
| Hot House 117: [T]he bureau sent in guards from other institutions to help ease the staff shortage at Leavenworth, but the Hot House guards objected [...] and resented their cutting into the overtime pie. | |
| Indep. on Sun. Culture 21 May 12: As the film’s Nick the Greek might have said, that’s a lot of pie. |
3. (orig. US) that which is easy or enjoyable.
(a) anything easy or simple [pie adj.1 ].
| Mirror of Life 13 Jan. 6/3: [headline] pie for the ‘monk’ / A Bulldog who was beaten to death by a Monkey. | |
| Gunner Depew 309: I enjoyed it all right; they were not in squads and had no arms, so it was hand to hand, and pie for me . | |
| They Die with Their Boots Clean 116: It’s a bit of cush. It’s a slice of pie. | |
| Savage Night (1991) 50: It was too much pie. | |
| et al. CUSS 170: Pie Easy course. | |
| Suicide Hill 76: ‘It go good for you?’ [...] ‘Yeah, it was pie’. |
(b) in fig. uses whereby the pie intensifies a given adj.; usu. in phr. ...as pie.
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 28: You fetch them to the cave, and you’re always as polite as pie to them. | |
| ‘’Arry on Harry’ in Punch 24 Aug. 90/2: Yer grammar may be quite O K, / All yer parts o’ speech proper as pie. | |
| ‘The City of Dreadful Thirst’ in Rio Grande’s Last Race (1904) 31: And, once outside the cloud of thirst, we felt as right as pie. | |
| [W.R. Burnett] It’s Always Four O’Clock 96: This Royal was a child; as long as he had his own way he was good as pie. | |
| Whores for Gloria 69: He would be as healthy as pie. | |
| Adventures 144: Everybody they introduce us to knows who we are. Everybody's nice as pie. |
4. (US black/drugs) 1kg of cocaine [the dealer will most likely ‘slice it up’ into smaller weights].
| ‘Ebonics’ 🎵 Yo, pay attention / And listen real closely how I break this slang shit down / A ki of coke is a pie. | |
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 pie Definition: one kilo of coke. Example: Yo I gota go uptown to pick up this pie. | |
| ‘Me OK’ 🎵 ‘Trap or die’, that’s me OK? / Mister Whip-a-knot-and-get-a-half-a-pie, that’s me, OK? |
5. see pie-can
In compounds
see separate entry.
mid-19C a street child who turns somersaults etc in the hope of getting pennies from passers-by, coach passengers, etc; thus v. pitch a pie, to turn a somersault.
| Sportsman 2 July 2/1-2: Notes on News [...] ['O]mnibus passengers, who like to see children throwing summersaults, or ‘pitching pies,’ as the children’s phrase is [...] even though hundred ‘piepitchers’ broke their necks . |
(US und.) a police patrol van.
| ‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/1: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] The pie van [is] a patrol wagon . |
a prostitute.
| Mercurius Fumigosus 11 9 Aug. 102: ’Tis thought, the next year wee shall have a crop of Young Pistolls, if the Py-woman do but water them Night and Morning. | |
| Mercurius Fumigosus 19 4–11 Oct. 168: Build a row of Almshouses for decayed Py-men, or Py-Women, alleadging the Great Charter granted to the Py-Women in the City of Venice, where the Curtezans live after a more hospitable and gentile manner than the Py-Women of this Countrey. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
1. a fool, a simpleton.
| Sporting Times 4 Mar. 2/4: Mighty anxious to bring the piecan down, ’Ector led his fifth card. | |
| ‘The Lure of the Lucre’ Sporting Times 1 Aug. 1/4: It ne’er struck me for a mo’ that she’d pal on to any ‘pie’ / Who’d be comin’ into money after Christmas. | |
| ‘Poetry in Prosaic Places’ Sporting Times 19 Feb. 3/2: Then left him like a ‘pie,’ / Waiting patiently for them to bring it back. [Ibid.] 5 Mar. 1/4: As far as I can size it up, she is no piecan, / It’s the dude who gives her presents who’s the Jay. | |
| Limehouse Nights 269: Yer plurry pie-cans! | |
| More Educated Evans (1932) 35: That piecan! Why, he don’t know a horse from a step-ladder. | |
| None But the Lonely Heart 266: ‘Listen piecan,’ she says. |
2. a second-rate object.
| Good Companions 526: You never saw such a piecan of a circus. |
1. a union-card, esp. when used as a credential for begging; thus pie-card artist, a union member.
| Arizona Champion (Mohave Co., AZ) 27 Apr. 3/4: Each and every one of us do hereby pledge ourselves not to play for more than seven dollars, the price of a ‘pie-card’. | |
| McCook Tribune (NE) 30 Aug. n.p.: No engineer or condictor has a full complement of tools, etc. upon his engine or caboose without the tribune. It is as important as a ‘Pie-card,’ boys. | |
| Voice of the People (N.O.) 14 Aug. 4/4: As a result of those Barbers striking like the I.W.W. a great many pie-card artists lost their pier. | |
| Voice of the People (N.O.) 18 June 2/1: Graft unionism means: Greed, jurisdictional wars, hatred, competition and pie-card parasites. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 31 Mar. 23/1: A political ballot-box Socialist pie-card artist idea. | |
| ‘Vocab. of Bums’ in AS IV:5 343: Pie card—A union card used to obtain food or lodging. |
2. a ticket that entitles one to a meal from a pie card mission.
| Bisbee Dly Rev. (AZ) 15 June 4/4: He ate on the pie card long enough to think out a better scheme. | |
| Albuquerque Citizen (NM) 2 May 6/3: getting together some funds with which to buy pie cards for some hungry baseball players who are hanging around looking for a job. | |
| Bisbee Dly Rev. (AZ) 13 may 5/5: Several of them have thus far failed to land positions and are hurting for a pie card. | |
| Labor Jrnl (Everett, WA) 28 Oct. 1/1: To build up the ‘pie card’ fund ‘Paddy’ arranged with a carnival company to stage a show. | |
| ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 458: Pie card mission, One in which the ‘saved’ are given free meal tickets. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 176: pie-card mission A mision that issues free meal tickets. |
3. one who begs for a meal.
| Milk and Honey Route 211: Pie card – One who hangs around and lives on a remittance man or some other person with money. |
4. the holder of a union-card.
| Brownstone 131: ‘Don’t let that pie-card pick on you, Joe?’ advised the ex-seaman. |
(US black) the mouth.
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | ‘Sins of the Mothers’ in Canada Mthly Dec. 98/1: ‘I’d have tumbled to that racket even if Ma hadn’t opened her pie-chopper and leaked information’. | |
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 9: Hold your piechopper, don’t vip another vop or I’ll take my headache stick and massage your top. |
1. an insignificant person.
| ‘Barracking’ in Benno and Some of the Push 144: He was that angry with the South pie-biters. | |
| (con. 1892) T.A. Dorgan in TAD Lex. (1993) 63: They all say I’m a dude, a pie eater. | |
| Dinkum Aussie Dict. 40: Pie eater: A person of no consequence. |
2. one who is greedy for material possessions.
| Caldwell Trib. (ID) 11 July 2/1: Judge Sweet refers to political pie-eaters with a commendable show of contempt. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 11/1: Again the Salvation Army fights the relatives of the late lamented at law for the cash. [...] The Army is beginning to build up an odorous reputation as a hungry, earth-grabbing organisation and a great ecclesiastical pie-biter. |
3. a fool, a simpleton; thus pie-eating adj.
| Virginian 128: He asked his Monte horse a question. ‘Do yu’ reckon she’ll have forgotten you too, you pie-biter?’. | |
| Christ in Concrete 273: What says the pie-eating coffee-drinking A-merde-can signore the President? | |
| Four-Legged Lottery 176: He [...] now works for the bookies to get the mugs in. The pie-eaters. | |
| The Roy Murphy Show (1973) 110: This piddling, puerile, pusillanimous, pen-pushing, pie-eating Pariah. | |
| Old Familiar Juice (1973) 110: bulla: (laughing shortly) Arr, go ter bed, yer wet-brained old pie-eater. | |
| Dinkum Aussie Dict. 40: Pie eater: [...] A dickhead. |
4. a small-time criminal.
| Joyful Condemned 166: ‘Just a pie-eater,’ he added with a sneer, ‘a dirty pie-eater.’. | |
| Lowspeak. |
1. drunk.
| Breaking Into Society (1904) 179: He would [...] continue to hoist until he was Pie-eyed. | |
| Rules of the Game 102: ‘Drunk, eh?’ ‘Spifflicated, pie-eyed, loaded, sloshed.’. | |
| St Louis Post-Despatch 16 Jan. 25/2: You’re slopping up too much scat (whiskey). You get so pie-eyed that you can’t tell a crib from a britch (pocket). | |
| Rampant Age 271: You were so pie-eyed you couldn’t even—. | |
| Right Ho, Jeeves 178: If you want real oratory, the preliminary noggin is essential. Unless pie-eyed, you cannot hope to grip. | |
| Iceman Cometh Act IV: Why the hell don’t you get pie-eyed and celebrate? | |
| Boss of Britain’s Underworld 203: The team showed the usual reaction [...] by going ashore and getting pie-eyed on the booze. | |
| Scrambled Yeggs 39: Dreamy-eyed couples swirled around on the tiny dance floor; also couples not so dreamy-eyed, but just plain pie-eyed. | |
| Texas by the Tail (1994) 56: Get yourself pie-eyed, and it won’t cost you a penny. | |
| Balloons in Black Bag 155: ‘Huh!’ ‘Huh won’t help you when eighteen pie-eyed Lancers come dancing through the door looking for naughty girls.’. | |
| Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 222: I don’t want you getting too pie-eyed before. | |
| Eve. Standard 28 May 11: I was pie-eyed the other day and stopped for chips. | |
| Indep. Rev. 4 Jan. 4: Most of Britain was too pie-eyed [...] to notice. | |
| Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA) 1 Nov. 29/1: You can’t hold a good Scotsman back when he wants to get [...] buckled, fou, guttered, [...] mortal, pie-eyed [...] plastered [...] steaming, stocious or wrecked. | |
| Assassination of Thatcher 222: Patriotism was only an excuse to get what they called pie-eyed. | |
| ‘Grandpa’s Place’ in ThugLit Sept. [ebook] By the fifth round, Boochie was shitty, filthy, pie-eyed drunk. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 79: He’s pie-eyed and stumbly. |
2. exhausted.
| Roman Hat Mystery 180: The Medical Examiner [...] thought I was pie-eyed from over-work. |
3. astonished, amazed.
| (con. WWI) Squad 222: You might just as well scare a guy to death as kill him, an’ scare ’im pie-eyed’s what the shells do... | |
| Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 189: Randall was pie-eyed. His mouth moved, but nothing came out of it. | |
| Cutty one Rock (2005) 166: The greasers took in this spectacle, pie-eyed and with some concern. |
4. under the influence of drugs.
| Fixx 205: Three pie-eyed lovers on a king-size bed in Maida Vale. | |
| Kill Your Darlings 277: Staggering around pie-eyed with a fat joint in his hand. |
see floater n.1 (1d)
(US teen) the mouth.
| Dly Wabash Exp. (Terre Haute, IN) 6 Nov. 2/2: I asked her for a kiss [and] she said, All rright, jest pucker up that pie-hoole of your’n and he’p yo’se’f’ . | |
| Christine 63: Then shut your pie-hole. | |
| Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 pie hole n 1. mouth. (‘Shut your pie hole!’). | |
| Nature Girl 164: Genie, shut your piehole. | |
| This Is How You Lose Her 93: [He] popped said fool in the piehole with a weak overhand right. | |
| OG Dad 167: The green plastic hippo she picked off the bus seat and jammed in her piehole. | |
| Boy from County Hell 106: He shoved something moist and stained in Ora’s pie hole. |
(US milit.) a navy prison, a brig n. (1)
| letter 10 Oct. in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 149: [S]omeone is pretty sure to land in the pie house for five days on bread and water with two pairs of neat and substantial bracelets to toy with during his enforced absence . | |
| letter 25 July in Channing War Letters of Edmond Genet 16: Last Friday (week) I lost my miserable temper while talking to one of the Chief Master-at-Arms and in consequence I spent all of last Saturday in the ship’s ‘pie-house’ munching angel-cake and white wine (bread & water). |
(US campus) to become drunk.
| Campus Sl. Nov. 4: pie out – to slowly become more sleepy or more drunk. | |
| Sl. and Sociability 30: In college slang out is the most productive particle: [...] pie out ‘become drunk’. |
a dog.
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
1. (US) a police van, used to transport villains.
| Life In Sing Sing 257: Pie Wagon. Patrol wagon. | |
| Wash. Post 3 July 3/1: They waltzed him over to the Irish clubhouse and then gave him a ride in the pie wagon ter the Tombs. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 413: Pie wagon. Patrol wagon. | |
| Und. and Prison Sl. | |
| Amboy Dukes 111: He was riding in the pie wagon while Frank was out somewhere [...] with a babe. | |
| (con. 1910s) Hoods (1953) 16: The clanging pie wagon finally came along, the cops in their high, stiff helmets. | |
| (con. 1940s) Hold Tight (1990) 196: Anyone still in drag was immediately led off to the pie wagon. |
2. a prison.
| Sun (NY) 19 Aug. 2/4: [graffito in Sing Sing Prison] Jack the Ripper, 6 months in a pie wagon, and Jimmie the Lush, 3 months in a brewery. | |
| Denton (MD) Journal 24 Oct. 1/7: Slang of the Sailor ‘Oh, he’s nothing but a beach comber. He was run up for breaking it once and got sent to the pie wagon,’ [...] The ‘pie wagon’ is the place where they put prisoners. | |
| St Helens Mist (OR) 11 May5/3: Pie wagon — The brig (prison). |
3. (US) a wagon used as sleeping quarters for chaingang workers.
| (con. 1922) I Am a Fugitive 64: Twelve men slept in a ‘pie wagon’ (a steel-barred wagon on wheels, four tiers of three bunks each). |
4. (US) a source of profits whence one derives ‘a piece of the pie’.
| Tough Guy [ebook] [E]verybody in town breaking an ankle to get on the pie-wagon. A shot of bootleg whiskey fetched as high as a buck, and even at two bits the speakeasy prop wasn’t losing. |
In phrases
(Aus.) total pleasure or enjoyment; usu. in negative.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Aug. 22/3: Touring in this land of big spaces is not all pie and velvet, and the protesting lady has given a good imitation of Patrick’s pig on a string. |
energetically, vigorously.
| Eng. Humorists 148: She loved Tom ‘like pie’. | |
| ‘’Arry on the Road’ in Punch 9 Aug. 83/1: I ’ad the box seat, mate, oh, trust me! I squared that like pie with our Whip. |
(orig. US) fantasies, fond hopes and illusions; also as attrib. adj.
| ‘The Preacher and the Slave’ in et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 544: You will eat bye and bye / In that glorious land above the sky; / Work and pray, live on hay, / You’ll get pie in the sky when you die. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 12 June 55/1: Over here they believe in pie in the sky when you die, and all that sort of thing. | |
| ‘Pie in the Sky’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 83: Work and pray, live on hay, / You’ll get pie in the sky when you die. (that’s no lie!). | |
| (con. 1920s) Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 822: You’ll have pie in the sky when you die (It’s a lie). | |
| Aberdeen Jrnl 2 Oct. 2/2: Squirrel pie may remain pie in the sky. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Hamlet of Stepney Green Act I: No more pie in the sky. You’ve got to support your mother now. | |
| Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1972) I 82: The pie-in-the-sky heaven that the climbing boy goes to. | |
| Jones Men 87: Most of the time it’s just been a lotta pie-in-the-sky crap. | |
| (con. 1920s) Tea at Miss Cranston’s (1991) 11: It was aye a pipe-dream that we would were to get a big house some day [...] Pie in the sky! | |
| Indep. 11 Sept. 1: How raising the wheel became pie in the sky. | |
| Hooky Gear 268: Back when he first say it it was pie in the sky. |
something easy, requiring no effort.
| Draughtsman (US) 8 250/1: [G]lancing over our simple methods [they] remark scornfully, ‘Pie like mother made’. | |
| Sudden 22: ‘Pie like mother made,’ he said savagely. ‘One coyote keeps him busy while the other sneaks round an’ plugs him from behind.’. | |
| Shilling for Candles 31: [of fake ‘sympathy’ offered by the police] And you get results with it, too. Perhaps they just break down and sob, on account of all the friendliness. Pie like mother made. |