piece vs slice

piece

noun
  • A slice or other quantity of bread, eaten on its own; a sandwich or light snack. 

  • An ounce of a recreational drug. 

  • A distance. 

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

  • A cannabis pipe. 

  • An artillery gun. 

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

  • 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. 

  • A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts. 

  • A shoddy or worthless object (usually applied to consumer products like vehicles or appliances). 

  • A structured practice row, often used for performance evaluation. 

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

  • An article published in the press. 

  • A sexual encounter; from piece of ass or piece of tail. 

  • 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. 

  • A single item belonging to a class of similar items. 

  • A gun. 

  • A pacifier; a dummy. 

  • A toupee or wig, especially when worn by a man. 

verb
  • To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag. 

  • To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out. 

  • To assemble (something real or figurative). 

slice

noun
  • A snack consisting of pastry with savoury filling. 

  • A hawk's or falcon's dropping which squirts at an angle other than vertical. (See mute.) 

  • A piece of pizza, shaped like a sector of a circle. 

  • A contiguous portion of an array. 

  • A removable sliding bottom to a galley. 

  • That which is thin and broad. 

  • One of the wedges by which the cradle and the ship are lifted clear of the building blocks to prepare for launching. 

  • A shot that (for the right-handed player) curves unintentionally to the right. See fade, hook, draw 

  • A thin, broad piece cut off. 

  • A section of image taken of an internal organ using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computed tomography), or various forms of x-ray. 

  • Any of a class of heavy cakes or desserts made in a tray and cut out into squarish slices. 

  • A salver, platter, or tray. 

  • A broad, thin piece of plaster. 

  • An amount of anything. 

  • A knife with a thin, broad blade for taking up or serving fish; also, a spatula for spreading anything, as paint or ink. 

  • A plate of iron with a handle, forming a kind of chisel, or a spadelike implement, variously proportioned, and used for various purposes, as for stripping the planking from a vessel's side, for cutting blubber from a whale, or for stirring a fire of coals; a slice bar; a peel; a fire shovel. 

adj
  • Having the properties of a slice knot. 

verb
  • To cut into slices. 

  • To kick the ball so that it goes in an unintended direction, at too great an angle or too high. 

  • To hit a shot that slices (travels from left to right for a right-handed player). 

  • To cut with an edge utilizing a drawing motion. 

  • To angle the blade so that it goes too deeply into the water when starting to take a stroke. 

  • To clear (e.g. a fire, or the grate bars of a furnace) by means of a slice bar. 

  • To hit the ball with a stroke that causes a spin, resulting in the ball swerving or staying low after a bounce. 

  • To hit the shuttlecock with the racket at an angle, causing it to move sideways and downwards. 

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