morsel

American  

[mawr-suhl] / ˈmɔr səl /

noun

• morsels
  plural

1. a bite, mouthful, or small portion of food, candy, etc.

2. a small piece, quantity, or amount of anything; scrap; bit.

3. something very appetizing; treat or tidbit.

4. a person or thing that is attractive or delightful.

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verb (used with object)

1. to distribute in or divide into tiny portions (often followed byout ).

   to morsel out the last pieces of meat.

morsel British  

/ ˈmɔːsəl /

noun

1. a small slice or mouthful of food

2. a small piece; bit

3. informal a term of endearment for a child

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• morsels
  plural

Etymology

Origin of morsel

1250–1300; Middle English < Old French, equivalent to mors a bite (< Latin morsum something bitten off, noun use of neuter of morsus, past participle of mordēre to bite) + -el < Latin -ellus diminutive suffix; see -elle

Explanation

A morsel is a small amount of something, a tid-bit, a sliver, usually of something of high-quality and much desired — like a morsel of dark chocolate or a morsel of secret information. Originally it referred specifically to food — a nineteenth century lady might partake of a "dainty morsel" to eat, for example. More often than not morsel now refers to non-food items: a morsel of good taste; a morsel of common sense, and, of course, most popular of all, a morsel of gossip. That's why, like all good food, all good gossip is juicy.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

morsel morsels

In it, Aadhya carefully feeds her grandmother a morsel of food.

From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026

Nearly five years on from its premiere, every morsel of information about Mike White’s addictive HBO series is still met with feverish excitement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2026

The cattle shortage has led companies to try to cut costs and scrape every morsel of meat off each cattle carcass.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025

The main course, a whole fried sea bream, served with a ginger fish sauce caramel, peanuts, herbs, lemon, and wild pepper leaves to delicately wrap each fried morsel, truly blew me away.

From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2025

Once or twice she had seen the father furtively slip the child an extra morsel from his plate, but he was plainly too spineless to stand up for her against his shrew of a wife.

From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare

X, Instagram, and Truth Social reduce complexities once aerated in newspaper articles into media morsels.

From Barron's ● Apr. 15, 2026

“Martin Scorsese All the Films” is filled with such morsels, making for an engrossing book—provided you don’t mind the occasional political asides.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026

This is because over time it builds up a wider picture by piecing together the morsels it may extract from a wide range of people.

From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2025

To feed, each bird spins on the surface, kicking water outward to create a whirling upwelling that brings morsels to its needle-like bill.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025

The quicker birds snatched morsels on the wing and gulped them down greedily.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

Related Words

• chunk
• crumb
• hunk
• mouthful
• snack
• tidbit