three-piece
/ˈθriːpiːs
/adjective [attributive]
1Consisting of three separate and complementary items, in particular:The pin complements a three-piece pin set, which will be available with the purchase of any sculpture at participating dealers....
- At the closing performance of India's only contemporary dance festival, she challenged traditional bastions with her three-piece presentation.
- She must have been quite well known in her own time, for this is described as ‘an expensive portrait clay produced from a three-piece mould and finished in baked varnish’.
1.1(Of a set of furniture) consisting of a sofa and two armchairs: a three-piece suite...
- It is a large, traditional room with feature fireplace, heavy furniture and a three-piece suite draped in throws.
- June complained to her insurer when dye from her husband's trousers ruined an armchair of her new three-piece suite.
- I bought a leather three-piece suite, with a footrest in each of the armchairs, which I ordered from Paris.
1.2(Of a set of clothes) consisting of trousers or a skirt with a waistcoat and jacket.In an era without refrigeration, air-conditioning or effective sanitation, and with polite dress being thick, three-piece suits and long skirts, the effects were traumatic....
- She was dressed in three-piece business suit with the skirt ending mid-thigh.
- But then, many in those days wore three-piece suits and the vest effectively hid the bottom of the tie.
noun
1A set of three separate and complementary items.
1.1A group consisting of three musicians: an entertaining and accomplished three-piece...
- ‘All the best bands were three-pieces,’ he stresses.
- Two of the three demos included here are culled from 90-minute tapes that the band recorded as a three-piece in 1987.
- When they first released their debut album in 1997 many didn't rate their chances of success, describing the three-piece as a run-of-the-mill indie band.