parcel

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   cover with strips of canvas

   parcel rope

2. 2
   verb

   divide into parts

   The developers parceled the land

3. 3
   noun

   A package wrapped for shipment.

   I saw a brown paper parcel on my doorstep.

4. 4
   noun

   A division of land bought and sold as a unit.

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

5. 5
   noun

   An indiscriminate or indefinite number, measure, or quantity; a collection; a group.

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

6. 6
   noun

   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.

7. 7
   verb

   To wrap a strip around the end of a rope.

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

8. 8
   verb

   To divide and distribute by parts or portions; often with off, out or into.

   Their woes are parcell’d, mine are general.

Etymology

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.