pier


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Related to pier: pier foundation

pier

a platform on pillars extending from shore over water: Part of the pier was washed out in the storm.
Not to be confused with:
peer – to look intently: peer in the window; a person with equal status, class, or age: a jury of his peers
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree Copyright © 2007, 2013 by Mary Embree

pier

 (pîr)
n.
1.
a. A platform extending from a shore over water and supported by piles or pillars, used to secure, protect, and provide access to ships or boats.
b. Such a structure used predominantly for entertainment.
2. A supporting structure at the junction of connecting spans of a bridge.
3. Architecture Any of various vertical supporting structures, especially:
a. A pillar, generally rectangular in cross section, supporting an arch or roof.
b. The portion of a wall between windows, doors, or other openings.
c. A reinforcing structure that projects from a wall; a buttress.

[Middle English per, bridge support, partly from Norman French pere, piere (from Old French puiere, a support, from puie, from puier, to support, from Vulgar Latin *podiāre, from Latin podium, platform; see podium) and partly from Medieval Latin pera (from Old North French pire, piere, breakwater, possibly from Latin petra, rock, from Greek petrā; see per- in Indo-European roots).]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

pier

(pɪə)
n
1. (Civil Engineering) a structure with a deck that is built out over water, and used as a landing place, promenade, etc
2. (Architecture) a pillar that bears heavy loads, esp one of rectangular cross section
3. (Architecture) the part of a wall between two adjacent openings
4. (Architecture) another name for buttress1
[C12 per, from Anglo-Latin pera pier supporting a bridge]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pier

(pɪər)

n.
1. a structure built on posts extending from land out over water, used as a landing place for ships, an entertainment area, etc.
2. (in a bridge or the like) a support for the ends of adjacent spans.
3. a square pillar.
4. a portion of wall between doors, windows, etc.
5. a pillar or post on which a gate or door is hung.
6. a support of masonry, steel, or the like for sustaining vertical pressure.
[before 1150; Middle English pere < Anglo-Latin pera, pēra pier of a bridge, of obscure orig.]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.pier - a platform built out from the shore into the water and supported by pilespier - a platform built out from the shore into the water and supported by piles; provides access to ships and boats
bitt, bollard - a strong post (as on a wharf or quay or ship for attaching mooring lines); "the road was closed to vehicular traffic with bollards"
levee - a pier that provides a landing place on a river
platform - a raised horizontal surface; "the speaker mounted the platform"
quay - wharf usually built parallel to the shoreline
shipside - the part of a wharf that is next to a ship
2.pier - (architecture) a vertical supporting structure (as a portion of wall between two doors or windows)
support - any device that bears the weight of another thing; "there was no place to attach supports for a shelf"
wall - an architectural partition with a height and length greater than its thickness; used to divide or enclose an area or to support another structure; "the south wall had a small window"; "the walls were covered with pictures"
architecture - the discipline dealing with the principles of design and construction and ornamentation of fine buildings; "architecture and eloquence are mixed arts whose end is sometimes beauty and sometimes use"
3.pier - a support for two adjacent bridge spans
bridge, span - a structure that allows people or vehicles to cross an obstacle such as a river or canal or railway etc.
support - any device that bears the weight of another thing; "there was no place to attach supports for a shelf"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

pier

noun
1. jetty, wharf, quay, promenade, landing place The lifeboats were moored at the pier.
2. pillar, support, post, column, pile, piling, upright, buttress the cross-beams bracing the piers of the jetty
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
Translations
دَعامَةرَصيف، جِسْر
molo
molebådebro
laituri
lukobran
bryggja
埠頭
부두
moles
pirsas
dambis, piestātne
mólo
pomol
bryggapir
ท่าเรือ
cầu cảng

pier

[pɪəʳ] N
1. (= amusement centre) paseo marítimo situado como zona de ocio sobre un muelle o malecón; (= landing-stage) → embarcadero m, muelle m
2. (Archit) → pilar m, columna f; [of bridge] → estribo m, pila f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

pier

[ˈpɪər] n
(= walkway) → jetée f
[bridge] → pile f
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

pier

n
Pier m or f; (= landing place)Anlegestelle f, → Pier m or f
(of bridge etc)Pfeiler m
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

pier

[pɪəʳ] npontile m; (landing stage) → imbarcadero, pontile; (of bridge) → pila
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

pier

(piə) noun
a platform of stone, wood etc stretching from the shore into the sea, a lake etc, used as a landing-place for boats or as a place of entertainment. The passengers stepped down on to the pier.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.

pier

دَعامَة molo mole Pier προκυμαία embarcadero laituri jetée lukobran molo 埠頭 부두 pier brygge molo píer, pontão пирс pir ท่าเรือ rıhtım cầu cảng 码头
Multilingual Translator © HarperCollins Publishers 2009
References in classic literature ?
The band on the pier is playing a harsh waltz in good time, and further along the quay there is a Salvation Army meeting in a back street.
This is a town of about three thousand inhabitants, with an excellent harbor and a big pier along which vessels can tie up and discharge their cargoes directly into waiting cars.
[I have seen that remark before somewhere.] The pier was crowded with carriages and men; passengers were arriving and hurrying on board; the vessel's decks were encumbered with trunks and valises; groups of excursionists, arrayed in unattractive traveling costumes, were moping about in a drizzling rain and looking as droopy and woebegone as so many molting chickens.
Suppose I cut the time to San Francisco one-half by building a big pier out there almost to Goat Island and establishing a ferry system with modern up-to-date boats?
Right in the midst of the narrows lies an islet with some ruins; on the south shore they have built a pier for the service of the Ferry; and at the end of the pier, on the other side of the road, and backed against a pretty garden of holly-trees and hawthorns, I could see the building which they called the Hawes Inn.
At the northern end of the beach there is a long pier. It was to this that George made his way on his arrival.
"I observed that the flood of last winter had lodged a great quantity of driftwood against the wooden pier at this end of the bridge.
You first, Musqueton," and he stopped his friends, directing the valets to go first, in order to test the plank leading from the pier to the boat.
It was just off Southend Pier, I recollect, and he was leaning out through one of the port-holes in a very dangerous position.
Meanwhile, upon questioning him in his broken fashion, Queequeg gave me to understand that, in his land, owing to the absence of settees and sofas of all sorts, the king, chiefs, and great people generally, were in the custom of fattening some of the lower orders for ottomans; and to furnish a house comfortably in that respect, you had only to buy up eight or ten lazy fellows, and lay them round in the piers and alcoves.
But in his poem called The Vision of Piers the Ploughman he says, "I have lived in the land, quoth I, my name is long Will." It is chiefly from his poem that we learn to know the man.
A long portrayal of the evil done by Lady Meed (love of money and worldly rewards) prepares for the appearance of the hero, the sturdy plowman Piers, who later on is even identified in a hazy way with Christ himself.