adj
piecemeal
Piecemeal (adj) means Done gradually, in separate parts rather than all at once.
adj
1
Done gradually, in separate parts rather than all at once.
"“This takes us away from the piecemeal, bit by bit approach,” said Cathleen Curran Myers, the Pennsylvania representative on the basin commission."
— Anthony Depalma, City Agrees to Help Regulate Delaware River by Releasing Water From Reservoirs (2007)
"Such assistance, I am convinced, must not be on a piecemeal basis, as various crises develop."
— George Marshall, The Marshall Plan Speech (1947)
"The dictionaries themselves cover this additional lexis in what can best be described as a piecemeal fashion, with an obvious but unwarranted bias towards colonial era lexis."
— James Lambert, Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English (2012)
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Etymology
Came into English via Middle English pecemele, from pece ("piece") plus mele, from Old English mǣlum ("at a time"), the dative plural of mǣl ("time, measure"), which took over from Old English styċċemǣlum ("in pieces, bit by bit, piecemeal; to pieces, to bits; here and there, in different places; little by little, by degrees, gradually"); equivalent to piece plus -meal.
Synonyms
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Rhymes for piecemeal
See all rhymes for piecemeal →Frequently asked questions
What is the meaning of piecemeal?
"piecemeal" (adj) means done gradually, in separate parts rather than all at once.
What is another word for piecemeal?
Other words for "piecemeal" include incremental, stepwise, gradual.
