parcel

plural parcels

1. A package wrapped, as for shipment or transport.

   I saw a brown paper parcel on my doorstep.

   2 more examples

   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.

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

   “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. […]”

   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

   Synonyms: package

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.

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

   Synonyms: plot

5. obsoleteA group of birds.
6. An indiscriminate or indefinite number, measure, or quantity; a collection; a group.

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

   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]

   2 more examples

   "Come, now," said the hill-man, "let us hear who else is to be at the christening?" "Ah," said the boy, "we are to have a great parcel of strangers and great people."

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 195

   […] 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 […]

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

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.

   3 more examples

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

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

   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.

   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.

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

present singular third person parcels · US participle present parceling · UK participle present parcelling · US participle past parceled · US past parceled · UK participle past parcelled · UK past 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.

   Their woes are parcell’d, mine are general.

   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]

   3 more examples

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

   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

   Hindostan was then parcelled out into twelve grand divisions, called soobahs, to each of which a viceroy was assigned, by the title of Soobahdar, corruptly written Soobah by European writers; for, soobah signifies province: many of these soobahs were in extent equal to large European kingdoms.

   1806, [Thomas Maurice], Indian Antiquities: Or, Dissertations Relative to the Antient Geographical Divisions, […] of Hindostan: […] , volume I. Containing the Dissertation on the Antient Geographical Divisions of Hindostan, London: Printed […] by C. & W. Galabin […] and sold by John White […] , pages 231–232

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

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

4. To add a parcel or item to; to itemize.

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

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), 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]

1. not comparableobsoletePart or half; in part; partially.

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

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

   2 more examples

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

   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

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

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