piecemeal

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Made or done in pieces or one stage at a time.

   • Near-synonyms: piecewise, stepwise; see also Thesaurus:gradual
   • a piecemeal approach
   • Such assistance, I am convinced, must not be on a piecemeal basis, as various crises develop.
2. 2

   Piece by piece

   Piece by piece; in small amounts, stages, or degrees.

   • 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.
   • The Western Region route, by contrast, was built up piecemeal and was not shaped in its present form until 1910.
   • The Government is under fresh pressure not to sell off piecemeal the route of the abandoned northern extension to Manchester until extra rail capacity has been clearly identified.
3. 3

   Into pieces or parts.

   • Stoop villaine, ſtoop, ſtoope for ſo he bids, That may commaund thee peecemeale to be torne, Or ſcattered like the lofty Cedar trees. Strooke with the voice of thundring Iupiter.
   • 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.
4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To divide or distribute piecemeal

      To divide or distribute piecemeal; dismember.

   2. 5

      A fragment

      A fragment; a scrap.

      • Thus the world Is all to piecemeals cut
      • 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.

The neighborhood

• synonymbit by bit
• synonymincrementally
• synonymasunder