DictionaryAI

piecemeal

PEES-meel/ˈpiːs.miːl/

Noun pluralpiecemeals

5 meanings of piecemeal

Practice

  1. 1
    in stagesadjective
    Carried out or put together bit by bit, in separate stages rather than as a whole.

    The city's piecemeal approach to road repairs has left half the streets torn up.

    Funding for the clinic arrived on a piecemeal basis, a few thousand dollars at a time.

    UsageOften critical: a piecemeal approach suggests no plan for the whole. Common pairings are piecemeal approach and on a piecemeal basis.

    Similarincremental, gradual, fragmented, haphazard

    Oppositecomprehensive, systematic, wholesale

    Note

    In his Marshall Plan speech of 1947, George Marshall insisted that aid must not be on a piecemeal basis, as various crises develop.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • George Marshall delivered his Marshall Plan speech in 1947. archives.gov
    • Marshall insisted that assistance must not be provided piecemeal as crises developed. oecd.org
  2. 2
    adverb
    Bit by bit, in small amounts, stages, or degrees.

    After the owner's death, the estate was broken up and sold off piecemeal.

    Details of the deal leaked out piecemeal over the following month.

    UsageUsually comes after the verb or its object: sold off piecemeal, built up piecemeal.

    Similargradually, separately, incrementally

    Oppositewholesale

  3. 3
    nounobsoletecountable
    A small fragment or scrap of something.
    Thus the world Is all to piecemeals cut
    a. 1695, Henry Vaughan, Ode
    The fairest towns that ever the sun rose upon, are now no more: the names only are left, and those (for many of them are wrong spelt) are falling themselves by piecemeals to decay.
    1762, Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (V.iii)

    Similarfragment, scrap

    Note

    Its home is the plural, inside a prepositional phrase: Henry Vaughan writes that the world is all to piecemeals cut, and Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy has the names of towns falling by piecemeals to decay. The phrases match the adverbs closely, since to piecemeals means into pieces and by piecemeals means bit by bit.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Henry Vaughan wrote the words describing the world as cut to piecemeals, in his translation of Casimirus, Lyricorum IV, Ode XXVIII. gutenberg.org
    • Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy describes the names of towns falling by piecemeals to decay; the passage is spoken by Walter Shandy. gutenberg.org

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    adverbdated
    Into pieces or separate parts.
    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.
    1888, “The Whitehall Murder”, in Daily Telegraph
  2. 5
    verbrare
    To divide something into pieces or hand it out in parts; to dismember.

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Origin

Middle English pecemele joined pece ("piece") with mele, which came from Old English mǣlum, meaning "at a time," the dative plural of mǣl ("time, measure"). It replaced Old English styċċemǣlum, meaning "bit by bit, in pieces, little by little," and it matches piece + -meal.