different between tool vs piece

English

Etymology

From Middle English tool, tol, from Old English t?l (“tool, implement, instrument”, literally “that with which one prepares something”), from Proto-Germanic *t?l? (“tool”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh?- (“to tie to, secure”), equivalent to taw (“to prepare”) +? -le (agent suffix). Cognate with Scots tuil (“tool, implement, instrument, device”), Icelandic tól (“tool”), Faroese tól (“tool, instrument”). Related to Old English t?wian (“to make, prepare, or cultivate”); see taw, and tow ("fibres used for spinning").

Pronunciation

• enPR: to?ol, IPA^(key): /tu?l/
• Rhymes: -u?l
• Homophone: tulle

Noun

tool (plural tools)

2. A mechanical device intended to make a task easier.

3. Any piece of equipment used in a profession, e.g. a craftman's tools.

4. Something to perform an operation; an instrument; a means.
5. (computing) A piece of software used to develop software or hardware, or to perform low-level operations.

6. A person or group which is used or controlled, usually unwittingly, by another person or group.

7. (vulgar, slang) A penis, notably with a sexual or erotic connotation.
8. (by extension, vulgar, slang, derogatory) An obnoxious or uptight person.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:penis
• See also Thesaurus:tool

Derived terms

Translations

References

• tool on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

tool (third-person singular simple present tools, present participle tooling, simple past and past participle tooled)

1. (transitive) To work on or shape with tools, e.g., hand-tooled leather.
2. (transitive) To equip with tools.
3. (intransitive) To work very hard.
   • 1965, Matt Fichtenbaum and Dan Murphy, “The Institute Screw” in The Broadside of Boston, vol. III, No. 22:

     Do this lab and read this book, now tool, one and all,
     And be sure and pass that final quiz or be screwed right to the wall.

4. (transitive, slang) To put down another person (possibly in a subtle, hidden way), and in that way to use him or her to meet a goal.

   Dude, he's not your friend. He's just tooling you.

5. (transitive, volleyball) To intentionally attack the ball so that it deflects off a blocker out of bounds.
6. (transitive, Britain, slang, dated) To drive (a coach or other vehicle).
7. (transitive, Britain, slang, dated) To carry or convey in a coach or other vehicle.
   • 1850s, Cuthbert M. Bede, The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green

     Among those who seemed disposed to join in this opinion was the Jehu of the Warwickshire coach, who expressed his conviction to our hero, that "he wos a young gent as had much himproved hisself since he tooled him up to the Warsity with his guvnor."

8. (intransitive, slang) To travel in a vehicle; to ride or drive.
   • March 8, 1890, Byron P. Stephenson, "My Trip to Brazil", in Illustrated American

     boys on their bicycles tooling along the well-kept roads

   • 2011, Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London, Gollancz 2011, page 324:

     These are the guys that tool around in Mercedes Sprinter vans with equipment lockers stuffed with everything from riot helmets to tasers.

Synonyms

• (volleyball): use

Derived terms

• tool around

Translations

References

Anagrams

• LOTO, OOTL, loot, loto

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English tool

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tu?l/
• Hyphenation: tool
• Rhymes: -u?l

Noun

tool m (plural tools, diminutive tooltje n)

1. A tool, aid, instrument, auxiliary device.

   Synonym: hulpmiddel

Related terms

• toolbox

Estonian

Etymology

From Middle Low German stôl, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *st?laz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?to?l?/
• IPA^(key): /?to?l/
• Hyphenation: tool

Noun

tool (genitive tooli, partitive tooli)

1. chair
   1. A seat with four legs and a backrest for one person.
      • 1968, Peet Vallak, Tuuled ümber maja: Novellivalimik, page 200:

        Siis läks kogu ta vallasvara oksjonile ning mõni siiasiginenud tool, laud, voodi, kapp ja sööginõud olid nüüd seaduslikult naise-ema omad.

        Then all his personal property was put up for auction and any chair, table, bed, or dishes he had taken possession now belonged legitimately to his mother-in-law.

Declension

Derived terms

References

• tool” in Sõnaveeb

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English t?l, from Proto-Germanic *t?l?.

Alternative forms

• tole, tol, toole

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /to?l/

Noun

tool (plural toles or tolen)

2. A tool, implement, or instrument.
3. A instrument of war; an armament.
4. (rare) A device used for torturing or interrogration.
5. (rare, vulgar) A penis.

Descendants

• English: tool
• Scots: tuil

References

• “t??l, n.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-03.

Etymology 2

Noun

tool

2. Alternative form of toll.

English

Alternative forms

• peece (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English pece, peece, peice, from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia, pettia, possibly from Gaulish *petty?, from Proto-Celtic *k?esdis (“piece, portion”); doublet of English fit, fytte, fytt (“musical piece, chapter”), Icelandic fit (“web”), German Fitze (“skein”), from Old High German *fitjâ. Compare Welsh peth, Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid. Compare French pièce, Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza.

Pronunciation

• enPR: p?s, IPA^(key): /pi?s/
• Rhymes: -i?s
• Homophone: peace

Noun

piece (plural pieces)

1. A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.
2. A single item belonging to a class of similar items
3. (chess) One of the figures used in playing chess, specifically a higher-value figure as distinguished from a pawn; by extension, a similar counter etc. in other games.
   • 1959, Hans Kmoch, Pawn Power in Chess, I:

     Pawns, unlike pieces, move only in one direction: forward.

4. A coin, especially one valued at less than the principal unit of currency.

   a sixpenny piece

5. An artistic creation, such as a painting, sculpture, musical composition, literary work, etc.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:musical composition

6. An article published in the press.
7. (military) An artillery gun.
   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 55,^[1]

     […] all our Ammunition was spent. Those of us who had Money made Slugs of it; their next Shift was to take the middle Screws out of their Guns, and charge their Pieces with them.

8. (US, colloquial) A gun.
9. (US, Canada, colloquial, short for hairpiece) A toupee or wig, especially when worn by a man.

10. (Scotland, Ireland, Britain, US, dialectal) A slice or other quantity of bread, eaten on its own; a sandwich or light snack.
    • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, page 46:

      My grannie came and gived them all a piece and jam and cups of water then I was to bring them back out to the street and play a game.

11. (US, colloquial, vulgar) A sexual encounter; from piece of ass or piece of tail.

12. (US, colloquial, mildly vulgar, short for piece of crap/piece of shit) A shoddy or worthless object (usually applied to consumer products like vehicles or appliances).

13. (US, slang) A cannabis pipe.
14. (baseball, uncountable) Used to describe a pitch that has been hit but not well, usually either being caught by the opposing team or going foul. Usually used in the past tense with get.

15. (dated, sometimes derogatory) An individual; a person.
    • c. 1579, Philip Sidney, The Defense of Poesy

      If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him.

    • 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aid to Reflection

      His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world.

16. (obsolete) A castle; a fortified building.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

17. (US) A pacifier; a dummy.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pacifier

18. (colloquial) A distance.

19. (rowing) A structured practice row, often used for performance evaluation.

20. An amount of work to be done at one time; a unit of piece work.

Usage notes

When used as a baseball term, the term is figurative in that the baseball is almost never broken into pieces. It is rare in modern baseball for the cover of a baseball to even partially tear loose. In professional baseball, several new, not previously played baseballs are used in each game.

It could be argued that the phrase was never meant (not even metaphorically) to refer to breaking the ball into pieces, and that "get a piece of the ball" means the bat contacts only a small area of the ball - in other words, that the ball is hit off-center. In that case "get" would mean "succeed in hitting", not "obtain".

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:piece

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: pisi
• ? Finnish: biisi
• ? Japanese: ??? (p?su)

Translations

See also

• chunk
• bit
• peace

Verb

piece (third-person singular simple present pieces, present participle piecing, simple past and past participle pieced)

1. (transitive, usually with together) To assemble (something real or figurative).

   • His adversaries […] pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.

2. To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out.
3. (slang) To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag.

Derived terms

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French piece, from Vulgar Latin *pettia, from Gaulish *petty?, from Proto-Celtic *k?esdis (“piece, portion”).

Noun

piece f (plural pieces)

1. piece, bit, part
2. moment (duration of time)

Descendants

• French: pièce
  • ? Danish: pjece
  • ? Northern Kurdish: piyes
  • ? Norwegian:

    Norwegian Bokmål: piece

  • ? Romanian: pies?
  • ? Russian: ?????? (p?jésa)
    • ? Kazakh: ????? (p?esa)
  • ? Swedish: pjäs
  • ? Yiddish: ??????? (pyese)
• Norman: pièche (Jersey)

References

• piece on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

Old French

Alternative forms

• pece

Etymology

From Late Latin pettia, from Gaulish *petty?, from Proto-Celtic *k?esdis (“piece, portion”).

Noun

piece f (oblique plural pieces, nominative singular piece, nominative plural pieces)

1. piece, bit, part
   • circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     Que del hiaume une piece tranche.

     It cuts a piece off his helmet

Descendants

• Middle French: piece
  • French: pièce
    • ? Danish: pjece
    • ? Northern Kurdish: piyes
    • ? Norwegian:

      Norwegian Bokmål: piece

    • ? Romanian: pies?
    • ? Russian: ?????? (p?jésa)
      • ? Kazakh: ????? (p?esa)
    • ? Swedish: pjäs
    • ? Yiddish: ??????? (pyese)
  • Norman: pièche (Jersey)
• Walloon: pîce
• ? Middle English: pece, pese, pesse, peace, pease, peise, pice, pise, piece, piese, pecche
  • English: piece
    • Sranan Tongo: pisi
    • ? Finnish: biisi
    • ? Japanese: ??? (p?su)
  • Yola: peece
  • ? Middle Irish: pissa
    • Irish: píosa
  • ? Scottish Gaelic: pìos

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??.t?s?/

Noun

piece m inan

1. inflection of piec:
   1. nominative plural
   2. accusative plural
   3. vocative plural