packet

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a message or message fragment, used in networked computer communication

   The faulty router was causing some packets to get lost.

2. 2
   noun

   A small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel

   Don't throw the crisp packet on the floor!

3. 3
   noun

   Originally, a vessel employed by government to convey dispatches or mails; hence, a vessel employed in conveying dispatches, mails, passengers, and goods, and having fixed days of sailing; a mail boat. Packet boat, ship, vessel (Wikipedia).

   With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where, at the end of the dock on which they stood, lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks.

4. 4
   noun

   A specimen envelope containing small, dried plants or containing parts of plants when attached to a larger sheet.

   With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get[…].

5. 5
   noun

   A message sent over a transport layer protocol.

   The Minecraft server accepts connections from TCP clients and communicates with them using packets. A packet is a sequence of bytes sent over the TCP connection.

6. 6
   noun

   A plastic bag.

   2012 August 6, Wendy Knowler, Plastic packets: who bags the profits?

7. 7
   noun

   Synonym of package (“male genitalia”).

   A sleeping, silver-haired man, probably about fifty, couldn’t close his legs because of the size of his packet.

8. 8
   noun

   A large amount of money.

   It'll cost a packet to fix this.

Etymology

From Middle English pacquet; either from Middle French pacquet, or formed independently from pak and -et.