- a baked food consisting of a sweet or savoury filling in a pastry-lined dish, often covered with a pastry crust
- pie in the sky ⇒ illusory hope or promise of some future good; false optimism
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
pie′ in the sky′,
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026- pie1 (def. 8).
- 1910–15, American.
pie1 /paɪ/USA pronunciation
n.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- Fooda crust of baked dough, filled with fruit, pudding, etc.: [countable]an apple pie.[uncountable]had apple pie for dessert.
- Fooda layer cake with a cream or custard filling: [countable]a Boston cream pie.[uncountable]Our desserts include lemon meringue pie and Boston cream pie.
- a total or whole that can be divided:[countable]They want a bigger piece of the pie.
- an activity or affair:[countable]I'm sure he had a finger in the pie.
- Idioms easy as pie, extremely easy or simple:Stealing the money was easy as pie.
- Idioms pie in the sky, [uncountable] a plan, suggestion, idea, or belief about something not likely to come true:His new tax plan is just pie in the sky.
pie1
(pī),USA pronunciation n.
pie′like′, adj.
pie2 (pī),USA pronunciation n.
pie3 (pī),USA pronunciation n., v.t., pied, pie•ing.
pie4 (pī),USA pronunciation n.
pie5 (pī),USA pronunciation n.
PIE,
- Fooda baked food having a filling of fruit, meat, pudding, etc., prepared in a pastry-lined pan or dish and often topped with a pastry crust:apple pie; meat pie.
- Fooda layer cake with a filling of custard, cream jelly, or the like:chocolate cream pie.
- a total or whole that can be divided:They want a bigger part of the profit pie.
- an activity or affair:He has his finger in the political pie too.
- Foodpizza.
- Idioms easy as pie, extremely easy or simple.
- Idioms nice as pie, extremely well-behaved, agreeable, or the like:The children were nice as pie.
- pie in the sky:
- Idiomsthe illusory prospect of future benefits:Political promises are often pie in the sky.
- Idiomsa state of perfect happiness;
utopia:to promise pie in the sky.
- Middle English, of obscure origin, originally 1275–1325
pie2 (pī),USA pronunciation n.
- Birdsmagpie.
- Latin pīca, akin to pīcus woodpecker
- Old French
- Middle English 1200–50
pie3 (pī),USA pronunciation n., v.t., pied, pie•ing.
- Printingpi2.
pie4 (pī),USA pronunciation n.
- Religion(in England before the Reformation) a book of ecclesiastical rules for finding the particulars of the service for the day.
- 1470–80; translation of Latin pīca pie2; the allusion is obscure; compare pica1
pie5 (pī),USA pronunciation n.
- Currencya former bronze coin of India, the 12th part of an anna. Cf. naya paisa, paisa, pice.
- Marathi pā'ī literally, a fourth
- 1855–60
PIE,
- Language VarietiesProto-Indo-European.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
pie /paɪ/ n
pie /paɪ/ n
- an archaic or dialect name for magpie
pie /paɪ/ n , vb
- a variant spelling of pi2
'pie in the sky' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):