parcel

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.

• enPR: pärʹ-səl, IPA^(key): /ˈpɑɹsəl/
  • (General Australian) IPA^(key): [ˈpʰaː.səɫ]
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [ˈpʰɑː.səɫ]
  • (General American) IPA^(key): [ˈpʰɑɹ.səɫ]

  • Audio (GA)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)səl
• Hyphenation: par‧cel

parcel (plural parcels)

1. A package wrapped for shipment.

   Synonym: package

   I saw a brown paper parcel on my doorstep.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     “H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what […] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […] ”

2. An individual consignment of cargo for shipment, regardless of size and form.
3. An individual item appearing on an invoice or receipt (only in the phrase bill of parcels).
4. A division of land bought and sold as a unit.

   Synonym: plot

   I own a small parcel of land between the refinery and the fish cannery.

5. (obsolete) A group of birds.
6. An indiscriminate or indefinite number, measure, or quantity; a collection; a group.
   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     […] this youthful parcel / Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,

   • 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 79:

     […] instead of sitting (as she ought to have done) by her good father and mother, she must needs run up into the gallery, and sit with a parcel of giddy creatures of her own age […]

7. A small amount of food that has been wrapped up, for example a pastry.
8. 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.

   • 1731, John Arbuthnot, chapter 4, in An essay concerning the nature of aliments‎, London: J. Tonson, page 85:

     The same Experiments succeed on two Parcels of the White of an Egg […]

   • 1881, John Addington Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy, Volume 5, Part I, New York: Henry Holt, Chapter 1, p. 2,

     The parcels of the nation adopted different forms of self-government, sought divers foreign alliances.

   • 1982 April 3, “Mousie Mousie Wildflower”, in Gay Community News, page 15:

     I don't think we are sitting pretty / So far away from our fair city / But I love you more than any parcel of earth.

• lot
• allotment

parcel (third-person singular simple present parcels, present participle parceling or parcelling, simple past and past participle parceled or parcelled)

1. To wrap something up into the form of a package.
2. To wrap a strip around the end of a rope.

   Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.

3. To divide and distribute by parts or portions; often with off, out or into.
   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Their woes are parcell’d, mine are general.

   • 1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 12:

     Thoſe ghoſtly Kings would parcel out my pow’r, / And all the fatneſs of my Land devour;

   • 1864, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, etc.‎, London: Edward Moxon, pages 94–95:

     Then the great Hall was wholly broken down, / And the broad woodland parcell’d into farms;

4. To add a parcel or item to; to itemize.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     […] that mine own servant should / Parcel the sum of my disgraces by / Addition of his envy!

parcel (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Part or half; in part; partially.
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet […]

   • 1826, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, page 120:

     […] as the worthy dame was parcel blind and more than parcel deaf, knowledge was excluded by two principal entrances […]

   • 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 59:

     here was one [a hut] that, summer-blanch’d, / Was parcel-bearded with the traveller’s-joy / In Autumn, parcel ivy-clad;

• “parcel”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “parcel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Placer, carpel, craple, placer

Borrowed from French parcelle (“parcel”), from Late Latin particella, diminutive of Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of partem (“part”).

• IPA^(key): [pʰɑˈsɛlˀ]

parcel c (singular definite parcellen, plural indefinite parceller)

1. parcel, lot (subdivided piece of land registred independently in official records)
2. (informal) detached house

   Synonym: parcelhus

• Hyphenation: par‧cel

parcel m (plural parcéis)

1. a shoal, a sandbank

   Synonyms: vau, vado, baixo, baixio, esparcel, restinga, sirte