Piecemeal

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Piecemeal \Piece"meal`\, adv. [OE. pecemele; pece a piece + AS.
     m?lum, dat. pl. of m?l part. See {Meal} a portion.]
     1. In pieces; in parts or fragments. "On which it piecemeal
        brake." --Chapman.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              The beasts will tear thee piecemeal.  --Tennyson.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Piece by piece; by little and little in succession.
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              Piecemeal they win, this acre first, than that.
                                                    --Pope.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Piecemeal \Piece"meal`\, n.
     A fragment; a scrap. --R. Vaughan.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Piecemeal \Piece"meal`\, a.
     Made up of parts or pieces; single; separate. "These
     piecemeal guilts." --Gov. of Tongue.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  piecemeal
       adj : one thing at a time [syn: {bit-by-bit}, {in small stages}, {step-by-step},
              {stepwise}]
       adv : a little bit at a time; "the research structure has
             developed piecemeal" [syn: {little by little}, {bit by
             bit}, {in stages}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  40 Moby Thesaurus words for "piecemeal":
     adrift, apart, apart from, aside from, asunder, away from,
     bit by bit, by degrees, by inches, by inchmeal, by snatches,
     disjointed, drop by drop, fitfully, foot by foot, fragmentary,
     gradual, gradually, in detail, in driblets, in installments,
     in lots, in small doses, in snatches, in the abstract, in twain,
     in two, inch by inch, inchmeal, intermittently, little by little,
     one by one, part by part, piece by piece, separately, severally,
     slowly, sporadic, sporadically, step-by-step