▪ I. † pece Obs.
Also 5 pyece, pese, 6 peece, Sc. peis, peys.
[ad. med.L. pecia, ‘vas, calix, cyathus’ (Du Cange).
In other uses, pecia represents F. pièce, e.g. pecia terræ = F. pièce de terre; but the sense ‘cup’, ‘vase’, is not known for F. pièce. In Eng. however pece is a common early spelling of piece, and this may be a sense of English development. Cf. ‘piece of plate’.]
A cup (esp. a wine-cup); a drinking-vessel.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. iii. 23 Coupes of clene Gold and peces of seluer. c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 760 A pot with riche wine And a pece to fil it yne. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) III. 433 After that he hade drunke wyne sende to hym by the kynge, he putte the pece [Higd. vas, Trevisa the vessel] in his bosom. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 388/1 Pece, cuppe, pecia, crater. 1470–85 Malory Arthur viii. ii, He tooke the pyece with poyson and dranke frely. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 535 Felle a pese, taverner. 1513 Douglas æneis vi. iv. 27 The warme new blude keppit in coup and peis. 1594 Plat Chem. Concl. 20 Putting them into a little pewter peece. |
b. ? A wine-cask or butt.
| 1608 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iii. Schism 545 As Claret wine from a pearc't Peece doth spout. |
▪ II. pece
obs. form of peace, piece.