piecemeal
Made or done in pieces or one stage at a timeMade or done in pieces or one stage at a time.
Recorded US: EncycloPetey, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
» The regulation is piecemeal and unfocused.
rul · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(idiomatic, not comparable)Made or done in pieces or one stage at a time.
Near-synonyms: piecewise, stepwise; see also Thesaurus:gradual
a piecemeal approach
scheibchenweise, häppchenweise, bruchstückhaft
постепе́нныйpostepénnyj, поша́говыйpošágovyj
покро́ковийpokrókovyj, поета́пнийpoetápnyj, фрагмента́рнийfrahmentárnyj
one thing at a time
Examples
5 sentencesThe regulation is piecemeal and unfocused.
The information is leaking piecemeal to the press.
I won't be swayed by your piecemeal offerings.
He said that the piecemeal solution of the government will not work.
Piecemeal approaches are doomed to fail.
Translations
7 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English pecemele, from pece (“piece”) + mele (from Old English mǣlum (“at a tiFrom Middle English pecemele, from pece (“piece”) + mele (from Old English mǣlum (“at a time”), dative plural form of mǣl (“time, measure”), taking the place of Old English styċċemǣlum (“in pieces, bit by bit, piecemeal; to pieces, to bits; here and there, in different places; little by little, by degrees, gradually”); equivalent to piece + -meal.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Synonyms
9 synonyms- one thing at a time:bit-by-bitin small stagesstep-by-stepstepwise
Word family
2 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.