phrase🎓 English idiom
a piece of work
a difficult, unpleasant person
What it means
An informal, usually disapproving way to describe a person who is difficult, unpleasant, or unusually unkind. It can also mark someone as strange or hard to deal with, and is often said with a touch of exasperation.
Examples
- Her new boss is a real piece of work — rude to everyone.
- After dealing with that customer, I can tell you he's a piece of work.
- She's a piece of work, always taking credit for other people's ideas.
- Wow, your landlord is quite a piece of work, isn't he?
Where it comes from
Originally a neutral phrase for a created object or achievement, as in Shakespeare's 'What a piece of work is a man'; the sarcastic sense for a troublesome person developed in modern American usage.
Related idioms
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