▪ I. pied, ppl. a.1
(paɪd)
Also 6–7 pide, 6–8 pyed, 7 py'd, pyde, (6 Sc. pyet).
[As if pa. pple. of a verb pie, f. pie n.1: see -ed.]
a. Parti-coloured; originally, black and white like a magpie; hence, of any two colours, esp. of white blotched with another colour; also of three or more colours in patches or blotches. Also, wearing a parti-coloured dress.
| 1382 [see c]. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxix. (Percy Soc.) 134 With a hood, a bell,..and a bagge; In a pyed cote he rode brygge a bragge. 1575 Brieff Disc. Troubles Franckford (1846) 203 To weare the pied coate off a foole. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 904 Dasies pied, and Violets blew, And Cuckow-buds of yellow hew. 1596 ― Merch. V. i. iii. 80 That all the eanelings which were Streakt and pied Should fall as Iacobs hier. 1611 Cotgr., Pecile, a pide, or skude colour of a horse. 1627 Drayton Nymphidia xviii, The wing of a pyde Butterflee. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 366 In a town within the territories of Brunswick, they had hired a pyed piper to conjure away all the rats and mice, that much infested him. [Cf. quot. c 1645 in f.] 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 16 Zebræ or Pide-horses. 1774 Lambert in Phil. Trans. LXVI. 493 The bullock is pyed, white and red. 1839 Youatt Horse 376 The pied horse is one that has distinct spots or patches of different colours, but almost invariably of white with some other colour. 1841 Catlin N. Amer. Ind. II. xli. 58 Others [horses] were pied, containing a variety of colours on the same animal. |
b. Construed as
pa. pple. = variegated.
| 1632 Milton L'Allegro 75 Meadows trim with Daisies pide, Shallow Brooks, and Rivers wide. 1671 Marten in Acc. Sev. late Voy. ii. (1694) 79 In the middle, they are white pyed with black. 1853 G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 122 A garment pied with daisies, and buttercups, and dandelions. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid v. 566 A Thracian courser with white all dappled and pied. |
† c. Pied Friars,
Friars of the Pie:
orig. name of a small order of friars: see
quot. 1904; in
P. Pl. Crede app. applied to the Carmelites or White Friars (whose dress was a brown tunic and a white cloak): see Skeat
Student's Pastime §53.
Pied Monk, a Bernardine or Cistercian, from their white tunic and large black scapular.
Obs. exc. Hist.| 1382 in Pol. Poems (Rolls) I. 262 With an O and an I, fuerunt pyed freres; Quomodo mutati sunt rogo dicat Pers. [c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 65 Sikerli y can nouȝt fynden, who hem first founded, But þe foles foundeden hem-self, freres of the Pye. c 1440 Walsingham Hist. Angl. (Rolls) I. 182 Cadaver..in quodam veteri cœmeterio, quod fuerat quondam Fratrum quos ‘Freres Pyes’ veteres appellabant,..projecerunt.] 1530 Palsgr. 254/1 Pyed monke, barnardin. 1537 Wriothesley Chron. (Camden) I. 63 An Abbott condam of Fountens, of the order of pyed monkes. 1904 Gasquet Eng. Monast. Life xi. 242 Pied Friars, or Fratres de Pica,..had but one house in England, at Norwich, and..were obliged by the Council of Lyons [1245] to join one or other of the four great mendicant Orders. |
d. In the specific names of many birds and other animals characterized by variegated colouring; as
pied antelope = bontebok;
pied blackbird, any Asiatic thrush of the genus
Turdulus (Webster 1890);
pied brant = harlequin brant;
pied crow, the black and white crow,
Corvus albus, found in most parts of Africa south of the Sahara;
pied duck, the extinct
Somateria labradoria;
pied finch, the chaffinch,
Fringilla cœlebs:
cf. piefinch;
pied flycatcher a black and white flycatcher,
Muscicapa (or Ficedula) hypoleuca, found in Europe and north and west Africa;
pied goose = magpie goose;
pied grallina, the Magpie Lark of Australia (
Grallina australis or picata);
pied hyena, the spotted hyena (
H. crocuta);
pied hornbill, species of
Anthracoceros;
pied kingfisher,
Ceryle rudis, a native of India and Africa;
pied seal, the Mediterranean Seal (
Monachus albiventer);
pied starling, an extinct starling of Réunion (
Fregilupus varius);
pied wagtail, a western European wagtail,
Motacilla alba yarrelli;
pied wigeon, (
a) the Garganey (
Anas querquedula); (
b) the Golden-eye (
Clangula glaucion); (
c) the Goosander (
Mergus merganser) (Swainson
Prov. Names Birds 1885);
pied wolf, a pied variety of the American wolf.
| 1930 W. L. Sclater Systema Avium Ethiopicarum II. 650 *Pied Crow... Throughout the Ethiopian Region. 1958 G. Durrell Encounters with Animals iii. 109 A pied crow from West Africa..suddenly decided that I was the only person in the world for him. 1967 W. Condry Birds & Wild Afr. iv. 65 In one palm a pair of pied crows were courting. |
| 1899 Cambr. Nat. Hist. IX. 119 The extinct ‘*Pied Duck’..was black, with white head, neck, chest [etc.]. |
| 1776 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (ed. 4) I. 351 (heading) *Pied fly-catcher. 1843 W. Yarrell Hist. Brit. Birds I. 169 The Pied Flycatcher..is a rare bird in England. 1882 [see fly-catcher 2]. 1894 C. Dixon Nests & Eggs Brit. Birds 157 The Pied Flycatcher arrives in our islands during the latter half of April. 1971 Country Life 25 Mar. 705/2 Other garden birds [in West Berlin] include redstarts and pied flycatchers. |
| 1898 Morris Austral Eng., Magpie-Goose..called also Swan-goose, and *Pied-goose. |
| 1865 W. Boyd Swartzen 72 Robes of striped or *pied hyena. |
| 1865 Ibis 2nd Ser. I. 408 *Pied Kingfisher. Appears to be the common species of Lower Bengal. 1924 W. L. Sclater Systema Avium æthiopicarum I. 211 Pied Kingfisher... The Greek Islands, Cyprus, Asia Minor and Egypt to the Persian Gulf. 1953 G. Durrell Overloaded Ark xiii. 221 There were Pied kingfishers, vivid black and white. 1971 Country Life 28 Oct. 1127/2 The much larger pied kingfishers hovered like kestrels, then plunged into the water from a height. |
| 1901 Nature 10 Jan. 254/2 A notable loss is the handsome crested *pied starling..which is believed to have become extinct about the middle of the [19th] century. |
| 1837 Gould in Mag. Nat. Hist. N.S. I. 460, I was..surprised to find that the sprightly and *pied wagtail..could not be referred to any described species. 1894 C. Dixon Nests & Eggs Brit. Birds 64 The White Wagtail does not differ in its habits..from the Pied Wagtail. 1964 G. B. Schaller Year of Gorilla (1965) i. 39 Pied wagtails flitted around the huts. 1975 E. Simms Birds of Town & Suburb i. 25 The trodden grass swards may be visited by an occasional pied wagtail. |
e. fig.| 1600 B. Jonson Underwoods, Misc. P. xxiii, Not wearing moods, as gallants do a fashion, In these pied times. 1635 [Glapthorne] Lady Mother i. iii. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 120 Noe specld serpent weares More spotts than her pide honor. 1658 Osborn Adv. Son ii. Pref. (1673) K v, Py'd and contaminated constructions. Ibid. 166 This pied Goddess [Fortune]. |
f. Pied Piper: in a German legend (the subject of Browning's poem
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1845)), a piper in parti-colour dress who rid the town of Hameln (Hamelin) of a plague of rats by charming them to follow him into the river Weser, and who, on being refused the promised reward, led away the children of the town: used allusively.
| 1942 ‘N. Shute’ (title) Pied piper. 1946 Koestler Thieves in Night 154 There was a horra in the Square with Mendl doing his Pied Piper act. 1966 Listener 27 Oct. 631/3 There was something very unpleasant about this Pied Piper of adolescent religious feelings [sc. David Wilkerson, an American evangelist]. 1972 T. P. McMahon Issue of Bishop's Blood (1973) i. 15 The pathetic thousands who trek endlessly after the Pied Pipers of the cancer cures. 1976 Western Producer (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) 24 June 7/4 In Ottawa..Bobby Gimby, Canada's pied piper, will sail along Rideau Canal followed by a flotilla of canoes filled with youngsters singing his pop Canadian hit ‘Canada’. 1977 S. Brett Star Trap xiii. 144 Charles could not help admiring the Pied Piper strength of the man's personality. The company was carried along on the wave of his vitality. 1979 Guardian 2 May 10/7 I'm the Pied Piper and every toddler is..singing ‘Vote vote vote for Mr Ashton’. |
g. Comb. (parasynthetic), as
pied-billed,
pied-coated,
pied-coloured,
pied-faced,
pied-winged, etc.
| 1595 Chapman Coronet Mistr. Philos. vi, The Protean rages Of pied-faced fashion. 1634 S. R. Noble Soldier ii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. I. 276 These pide-winged Butterflyes. c 1645 Howell Lett. I. vi. xlix. (1650) 241 The said Town of Hamelen was annoyed with Rats and Mice; and it chanc'd, that a Pied-coated Piper came thither. 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. I. xxiii. 236 Eighteen great horses, all of them pyed coloured. 1888 Trumbull Bird Names 82 note, The Pied-billed Grebe..familiar to us all. |
▪ II. pied, ppl. a.2 rare.
(
paɪd)
[f. pie v.3 + -ed1.] Converted into printers' pie; mixed up, confused.
| 1870 Daily News 2 Oct., Since then matters stand as above described, in a curiously pied condition. 1904 ‘Mark Twain’ in Harper's Weekly 10 Dec. 12/2 A thing that gets pied is dead,..its chance of seeing print is gone. 1956 J. Whatmough Language i. 9 A haphazard jumble of symbols, say a pied text, is a..nightmare. |