piecemeal
Americanadverb
-
piece by piece; one piece at a time; gradually.
to work piecemeal.
-
into pieces or fragments.
to tear a letter piecemeal.
adjective
adverb
-
by degrees; bit by bit; gradually
-
in or into pieces or piece from piece
to tear something piecemeal
adjective
Etymology
Origin of piecemeal
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English pecemele; replacing Old English styccemǣlum, see piece, -meal
Explanation
When you do something piecemeal, you're doing it little by little, but in a seemingly random way, with no order or system. Say you're a computer geek and someone calls you desperate to find out how to fix a computer that's just crashed. If you respond piecemeal to the caller's questions, she'll have to call you back many times to get all the information she needs to get the computer up again. You may like to talk to her, but she's not going to be impressed with your computer smarts.
Vocabulary lists containing piecemeal
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"After decades of limited and piecemeal investments in the North, Canada's new government is acting with a scale of ambition worthy of this vast region and its peoples," he said in March.
From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026
Apple delivered new Siri capabilities piecemeal in the following months, and the company announced in March 2025 that a full Siri overhaul would be pushed to 2026.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 31, 2026
Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russia’s internet, said this piecemeal approach to internet censorship has helped authorities avoid sparking protests.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 14, 2026
Where better to go to find piecemeal work?
From Slate • Jan. 27, 2026
The underlying reason why this transition was piecemeal is that food production systems evolved as a result of the accumulation of many separate decisions about allocating time and effort.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
