piece together

piece together

1. Literally, to fit the pieces of something together into a whole. A noun or pronoun can be used between "piece" and "together." She got some super glue and pieced the broken lamp back together. I'm trying to piece together this table, but the instructions are really confusing!
2. To make sense of something by analyzing multiple pieces of information and drawing a conclusion based on what they indicate. A noun or pronoun can be used between "piece" and "together." Federal investigators are experts at piecing evidence together to track down criminals. At first I was confused by all the strange ways Janet was behaving, but then I pieced it together and realized what she's been up to.
See also: piece, together
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

piece something together

to fit something together; to assemble the pieces of something, such as a puzzle or something puzzling, and make sense of it. The police were unable to piece the story together. The detective tried to piece together the events leading up to the crime.
See also: piece, together
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

piece together

Join or combine parts into a whole, as in With information from several observers, she pieced together an account of what had actually taken place . [Late 1500s]
See also: piece, together
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

piece together

v.
To join or unite the pieces of something: We pieced the broken vase together. The detective pieced together the sequence of events leading up to the accident by interviewing witnesses.
See also: piece, together
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • knit together
  • keep together
  • cement together
  • splice together
  • draw people or things together
  • draw together
  • crash together
  • scrape together
  • string together
  • knot together
References in periodicals archive
Police would still like to hear from anyone who saw him in the moments before he died to help piece together his final movements.
Help solve death riddle
Chief Insp Steve Glover of West Midlands police said officers were still trying to piece together what happened in the moments after the raid on the Nationwide, where Securicor guards were refilling cash machines.
Reward to find armed robbers
The coroner has been informed of his death and police said they were trying to piece together his last movements by speaking to clubbers and people in the town's pubs and bars.
Nightclubber found dead on beach; RHYL: Police tracing last journey of man who drowned
"We will now try to piece together his last moments and see if we can establish why this happened."
Police probe on man's fireball death
Through more interviews, school, police, and newspaper reports, and finally Len's handwritten journal, we piece together the tragedy and the roles of each player, and understand how it came to pass.
Myers, Walter Dean. Shooter
Balf draws from those texts, as well as other historical data, to piece together the events and reveal the story of these brave men who played a crucial, if unsung, role in the building of the Panama Canal.
The Darkest Jungle: the Tree Story of the Darien Expedition and America's Ill-Fated Race to Connect the Seas
Barker's world is complex, as is his writing, making [this] more suitable for advanced readers of fantasy who can piece together multiple plots and tease out the underlying logic of an unfamiliar world.
Abarat
New data of this sort should help astronomers piece together more about how stars form, Brandl says.--R.C.
Scoping out a stellar nursery
After determining the sequence of nucleotides making up each such piece of DNA, biologists use a computer to match overlapping sequences and piece together as much of the animal's full DNA sequence as possible.
Poodle DNA compared with that of mice, people
Barker's world is complex, as is his writing, making Abarat more suitable for advanced readers of fantasy who can piece together multiple plots and tease out the underlying logic of an unfamiliar world ...
Barker, Clive. Abarat
Now, researchers in the United States and India have used the fossil record to piece together variations in monsoon strength over the past millennium.
Data hint at wet and blustery future. (Monsoon Warning)
The findings may help researchers piece together the puzzle of protein regulation and lead to a new generation of therapies for heart disease and nervous system disorders, says Patterson.
Cells have molecule for protein triage
Eventually, Hilly and her parents are able to piece together the true family history and they make contact with a relative they never knew existed--the sister who played the piano in Germany so long ago, a survivor of the concentration camps who now lives in Israel.
Newbery, Linda. Sisterland
Celera's controversial genome strategy quickly produces sequences of gene fragments, but scientists must then use overlapping sequences to piece together the genome.
Firm nears completion of human genome
Some mummified birch leaves are haunting scientists who are trying to piece together the history of carbon dioxide.
Reading the leaves for climate clues