piece of work vs project

piece of work

noun
  • A person who has a strong and unusual personality, especially one with seriously unpleasant character flaws (e.g. a nasty piece of work). (This sense came about due to Hamlet’s soliloquy (see sense 1 above)). 

  • A product or manufactured article, especially an item of art or craft. 

project

verb
  • To extend beyond a surface. 

  • To speak or sing in such a way that one can be heard from a large distance away. 

  • To make plans for; to forecast. 

  • To assume qualities or mindsets in others based on one's own personality. 

  • To present (oneself), to convey a certain impression, usually in a good way. 

  • To change the projection (or coordinate system) of spatial data with another projection. 

  • (of a neuron or group of neurons) to have axon(s) extending to and therefore able to influence a remote location 

  • To cast (an image or shadow) upon a surface; to throw or cast forward; to shoot forth. 

  • To draw straight lines from a fixed point through every point of any body or figure, and let these fall upon a surface so as to form the points of a new figure. 

  • To extend (a protrusion or appendage) outward. 

noun
  • A planned endeavor, usually with a specific goal and accomplished in several steps or stages. 

  • a raw recruit who the team hopes will improve greatly with coaching; a long shot diamond in the rough 

  • An urban low-income housing building. 

How often have the words piece of work and project occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )