idiom

• piece of work 
• a cold piece of work - osoba sa kojom se neko teško nosi, zadrta osoba, preterano zahtevna osoba ili teška osoba.

1. Did you see how she treats her husband? She is a cold piece of work.
2. Damn, she's a cold piece of work.
3. Dee was married to Vernon at one time and she was a piece of work.

• be a nasty piece of work  (British & Australian informal)
• piece of work skoro uvek sa nasty - (osoba tip omalovazavajuci) 

definicija - komplikovana, teška ili ekscentrična osoba. (lop. ubistvo)

1. Jonh is a nasty piece of work.
2. He's a nasty piece of work, is Carl. I'd avoid him if I were you.

definicija - može biti i kompliment kao žilava, izdržljiva osoba, a može biti i sarkastičan ponekad kompliment.

1. "He's a very tough piece of work".
2. What a piece of work is man
3. What A Piece of Work I Am

Remeke delo
nifty piece of work - izvendredan komad rada