piecemeal
Pronunciation
  • (RP, America) IPA: /ˈpiːs.miːl/
Adjective

piecemeal (not comparable)

  1. Made or done in pieces or one stage at a time.
    • 1947 - George Marshall, The Marshall Plan Speech
      Such assistance, I am convinced, must not be on a piecemeal basis, as various crises develop.
    • 1953, James Strachey, translation of Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Avon Books, pg. 224:
      But the copious and intertwined associative links warrant our accepting the former alternative: cyclamen—favourite flower—favourite food— artichokes; pulling to pieces like an artichoke, leaf by leaf (a phrase constantly ringing in our ears in relation to the piecemeal dismemberment of the Chinese Empire)—herbarium—bookworms, whose favourite food is books.
Synonyms Translations Adverb

piecemeal (not comparable)

  1. Piece by piece; in small amounts, stages, or degrees.
    • 1914 - Saki, The Forbidden Buzzards
      It’s as bad as selling a man a horse with half a dozen latent vices and watching him discover them piecemeal in the course of the hunting season.
  2. Into pieces or parts.
    • 1888 - The Whitehall Murder, Daily Telegraph (London), October 03
      A few years ago also there was the case of Kate Webster, who at Richmond murdered her mistress, and, fiend-like, cut the body up piecemeal, and tried to dispose of it in various ways by small portions.
Synonyms Translations Translations
  • German: in Einzelteile
  • Russian: на куски́
Verb

piecemeal (piecemeals, present participle piecemealing; past and past participle piecemealed)

  1. (transitive) To divide or distribute piecemeal; dismember.
Synonyms Noun

piecemeal (plural piecemeals)

  1. A fragment; a scrap.
Synonyms


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