parcel
verb
- distribute evenly
noun
- packet that is sent by post or a comparable service
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: [ˈpʰɑː.səɫ] / /ˈpɑɹsəl/ / [ˈpʰɑɹ.səɫ]
adv
Etymology: From Middle English parcel, from Old French parcelle (“a small piece or part, a parcel, a particle”), from Late Latin particella, diminutive of Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of partem (“part, piece”). Doublet of particle.
- Part or half; in part; partially.
“Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet […]”
“[…] as the worthy dame was parcel blind and more than parcel deaf, knowledge was excluded by two principal entrances […]”
noun
Etymology: From Middle English parcel, from Old French parcelle (“a small piece or part, a parcel, a particle”), from Late Latin particella, diminutive of Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of partem (“part, piece”). Doublet of particle.
- A package wrapped, as for shipment or transport.
“I saw a brown paper parcel on my doorstep.”
“At twilight in the summer[…]the mice come out. They[…]eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly[…]on the floor.”
- An individual consignment of cargo for shipment, regardless of size and form.
- An individual item appearing on an invoice or receipt (only in the phrase bill of parcels).
- A division of land bought and sold as a unit.
“I own a small parcel of land between the refinery and the fish cannery.”
- A group of birds.
- An indiscriminate or indefinite number, measure, or quantity; a collection; a group.
“[…] this youthful parcel / Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,”
“"Come, now," said the hill-man, "let us hear who else is to be at the christening?" "Ah," said the boy, "we are to have a great parcel of strangers and great people."”
- A small amount of food that has been wrapped up, for example a pastry.
- A portion of anything taken separately; a fragment of a whole; a part.
“A certain piece of land is part and parcel of another piece.”
“The same Experiments succeed on two Parcels of the White of an Egg […]”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English parcel, from Old French parcelle (“a small piece or part, a parcel, a particle”), from Late Latin particella, diminutive of Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of partem (“part, piece”). Doublet of particle.
- To wrap something up into the form of a package.
- To wrap a strip around the end of a rope.
“Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.”
- To divide and distribute by parts or portions; often with off, out or into.
“Their woes are parcell’d, mine are general.”
“Thoſe ghoſtly Kings would parcel out my pow’r, / And all the fatneſs of my Land devour;”
- To add a parcel or item to; to itemize.
“[…] that mine own servant should / Parcel the sum of my disgraces by / Addition of his envy!”