subs. (colloquial).—(1) A magpie; and (2) a prating gossip. WILY PIE = a sly rogue.
1369. CHAUCER, Troilus and Criseyde, iii. 527.
| Dredelees it cleer was in the wind | |
| Of every PYE and every lette-game. |
d. 1529. SKELTON, Balletys and Dyties [DYCE, i. 24, 34]. By theyr conusaunce knowing how they serue a WILY PY.
1577. STANYHURST, Description of Ireland, 13. Howbeit in the English pale to this day they use to tearme a slie cousener a WILIE PIE.
c. 1580. Ballad of Troilus [HALLIWELL].
| Then Pandare lyke a WYLY PYE, | |
| That cowld the matter handell, | |
| Stept to the tabell by and by, | |
| And forthe he blewe the candell. |
[?]. M. S. Rawlinson, C 258. The PYE hathe pecked you.
3. See PI, subs., sense 1.
[More or less colloquial are:—TO HAVE A FINGER IN THE PIE (or, indeed, any matter) = to meddle, to join in: cf. BOAT; TO MAKE A PIE = to combine with a view to profit; LIKE PIE = with zest: cf. JAM; IN SPITE OF THE PIE = obstinately (PIE = the Book of the Offices of the Church); NOT TO COOK ANY OF THE PIE (American) = to abandon an enterprise, to take no further interest (MARK TWAIN).
1601. SHAKESPEARE, Henry VIII., i. 1. No man’s PIE IS PREED FROM HIS ambitious FINGER.
1603–15. The Court and Times of James the First (1848), I. 37. If this earl should be found hereafter anyways privy thereto, it cannot be but that Beaumont’s HAND WAS IN THE PIE.
1608. WITHALS, Dictionarie, 390. Pertinax in rem aliquam, that is fully bent to doe a thing, that will doe it, yea marie will he, maugre or IN SPIGHT OF THE PIE.
1749. SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 169. It was but fair I should have A FINGER IN THE EARNINGS. Ibid., 297. I was entitled to have A FINGER IN THE DISSIPATION.
1767. RAY, Proverbs [BOHN], 159. He had A FINGER IN THE PIE when he burnt his nail off.
1842. P. EGAN, The by-blow of the Jug, ii.
| And she taught him soon to swear and lie, | |
| And to HAVE A FINGER IN EVERY PIE. |
1887. W. E. HENLEY, Culture in the Slums, ‘Ballade’ 3. I goes for ’Olman ’Unt LIKE PIE.
