• enPR: pärʹ-səl, IPA: /ˈpɑɹsəl/
  • (AU) IPA: [ˈpʰaː.səɫ]
  • (RP) IPA: [ˈpʰɑː.səɫ]
  • (GA) IPA: [ˈpʰɑɹ.səɫ]

parcel (plural parcels)

1. A package wrapped for shipment.

   I saw a brown paper parcel on my doorstep.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619 ↗:

     At twilight in the summer […] the mice come out. They […] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly […] on the floor.

2. An individual consignment of cargo for shipment, regardless of size and form.
3. A division of land bought and sold as a unit.

   I own a small parcel of land between the refinery and the fish cannery.

4. (obsolete) A group of birds.
5. An indiscriminate or indefinite number, measure, or quantity; a collection; a group.
   • circa 1602 William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, Act II, Scene 3,

     […] this youthful parcel

     Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,

   • 1847, Herman Melville, Omoo, Part 2, Chapter 79,

     […] instead of sitting (as she ought to have done) by her good father and mother, she must needs run up into the gallery, and sit with a parcel of giddy creatures of her own age […]

6. A small amount of food that has been wrapped up, for example a pastry.
7. A portion of anything taken separately; a fragment of a whole; a part.

   A certain piece of land is part and parcel of another piece.

   • 1731, John Arbuthnot, An essay concerning the nature of aliments, London: J. Tonson, Chapter 4, p. 85,

     The same Experiments succeed on two Parcels of the White of an Egg […]

   • 1881, John Addington Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy, Volume 5, Part I, New York: Henry Holt, Chapter 1, p. 2,

     The parcels of the nation adopted different forms of self-government, sought divers foreign alliances.

• (package wrapped for shipment) package
• (division of land bought and sold as a unit) plot

• part
• particle
• particular
• particulate

• French: colis, paquet
• German: Paket
• Italian: pacchetto, plico
• Portuguese: pacote
• Russian: посы́лка
• Spanish: paquete

• French: parcelle
• German: Parzelle
• Italian: lotto, parcella
• Portuguese: lote, terreno
• Russian: уча́сток
• Spanish: parcela

• Spanish: hatajo

parcel (parcels, present participle parceling; past parceled, past participle parceled)

1. To wrap something up into the form of a package.
2. To wrap a strip around the end of a rope.

   Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.

3. To divide and distribute by parts or portions; often with out or into.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III (play), Act II, Scene 2,

     Their woes are parcell’d, mine are general.

   • 1667, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, London: H. Herringman, Act I, Scene 2, p. 12,

     Those ghostly Kings would parcel out my pow’r,

     And all the fatness of my Land devour;

   • 1864, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field” in Enoch Arden, etc., London: Edward Moxon, pp. 94-95,

     Then the great Hall was wholly broken down,

     And the broad woodland parcell’d into farms;

4. To add a parcel or item to; to itemize.
   • circa 1606 William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2,

     […] that mine own servant should

     Parcel the sum of my disgraces by

     Addition of his envy!

• French: empaqueter, emballer, envelopper
• Italian: impacchettare
• Portuguese: empacotar
• Spanish: embalar

• Spanish: parcelar

parcel (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Part or half; in part; partially.
   • circa 1597 William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act II, Scene 1,

     Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet […]

   • 1826, Walter Scott, Woodstock (novel), Chapter 4,

     […] as the worthy dame was parcel blind and more than parcel deaf, knowledge was excluded by two principal entrances […]

   • 1864, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field” in Enoch Arden, etc., London: Edward Moxon, p. 59,

     here was one [a hut] that, summer-blanch’d,

     Was parcel-bearded with the traveller’s-joy

     In Autumn, parcel ivy-clad;