Dictionary

playpiece en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈpleɪ.piːs/

Etymology

From play + piece.

Meanings

1. (Scotland) A snack taken by a child to school to be eaten at playtime.
   • They would hunker down in a corner of the schoolyard at playtimes and he would give Betty whatever was left over from the night before, or whatever he had been given for a playpiece. 2002, Meg Henderson, Bloody Mary, →ISBN, page 15:
   • There were also the 'playpieces' you took to school, although, to confuse the issue slightly, a playpiece didn't always have to include a bread sandwich. It could simply be a chocolate biscuit tucked into your leather satchel to be enjoyed at morning break along with the carton of free milk. 2020, Jeff Zycinski, Travels from my Twilight Zone, →ISBN:
   • She was jealous of me going though, wanted to see the inside of the Laverys' house for herself, and was in a bad mood with me for the whole of the following day at school. She had three chocolate digestives for her playpiece and wouldn’t give me one. 1989, Joan Lingard, Sisters by Rite, →ISBN, page 29:
2. Synonym of game piece.
   • He kicked at the fallen playpieces and added, with a smile that bore no malice, "It can't be any more useless than trying to teach a thick-skulled foreigner this noble game." 1986, John Jakes, “Storm in a Bottle”, in Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, Charles G. Waugh, editors, The Mammoth Book of Short Fantasy Novels, →ISBN, page 285:
   • An educational board game comprising a game apparatus including: […] a plurality of playpieces, each playpiece being adapted to be placed on a space on said travel path […] 2000 February 1, Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, volume 1231, number 1, page 203:
   • There is no on-off switch here, because the computer is activated only when playpieces are pressed onto the peg-detection panel. 1981, Howard Blumenthal, The Complete Guide to Electronic Games, →ISBN, page 106:

Forms

Synonyms

game piece