Cowper, Tirocinium, 1

425. (a) A coin: as, a piece of eight (see phrase below); a fourpenny piece. What is 't, a hundred pound? Meer. Eve . No, th' harpy now stands on a hundred pieces . B. Jonson , Devil is an A , iii. 1. When a piece of silver is named in the Pent a teuch, it signifies a sicle; if it be named in the prophets, it signifies a pound; if in the other writings of the Old Testament, it signifies a talent. Jer. Taylor , Works (ed. 1835), I. 290. Harry Fielding was in nowise particular in accepting a few pieces from the purses of his rich friends, and bore down upon more than one of them for a dinner or a guinea. Thackeray , English Humourists. (b) A cannon or gun; a firearm: as, his piece was not loaded; a fowling- piece . He hath great pieces of ordnance, and mighty kings and emperors, to shoot against God's people.