parcel out

1. Divide into parts and distribute, as in She parceled out the remaining candy among the children. This idiom uses parcel in the sense of “divide into small portions.” [Mid-1500s]

Example Sentences

Certain credits are parceled out quarterly or even monthly, and premium cards can have the feel of a coupon book.

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I scan the little slots until I find mine: a refill of Greek oregano, parceled out in a plastic baggie with a heat-sealed strip.

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Most of that funding has been parceled out in grants of $50,000 or less, and more than half of that funding flowed directly to individual states’ humanities councils.

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He was a prolific writer and he parceled out songs to people that he cared about or was working with.

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It is also the entry point to a messy interpersonal conflict that spills out from the classroom and involves decades of family history, which the screenplay slowly parcels out in agonizing, tantalizing drips of information.

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Related Words

• accord 
• allow 
• award 
• commit 
• deliver 
• donate 
• grant 
• hand out 
• hand over 
• permit 
• present 
• provide 
• sell 
• turn over