morsel

UK/ˈmɔːsəl//ˈmɔɹsəl/

morsel noun: a small fragment or share of something, commonly applied to food.

Noun

morsel (plural morsels)

A small fragment or share of something, commonly applied to food.
- By sticking out his tongue and curling it sideways to explore the hairy jungle around his mouth, he was always able to find a tasty morsel here and there to nibble on.1979, Roald Dahl, The Twits
- If a morsel of food fell off your plate, the advice of one contemporary document was to pick it up, make the sign of the cross over it, season it well - and then eat it.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 122
A mouthful of food.
- Me thinks I ſee the Turke nodding vvith his Turban, and telling me that I ſhould thanke Heaven for that diſtance vvhich is betvvixt us, els he vvould ſvvallovv me all up at one morſell; […]1644, James Howell, England’s Teares, for the Present Wars, […], London: […] Richard Heron, →OCLC, page 4
A very small amount.
- Didn't even a morsel of decency remain in his brother?2008, Pamela Griffin, New York Brides, Barbour Publishing, →ISBN, page 70
Synonyms:

ace, atom, thought, atomy, aught, bissel, continental, bit, crumb, glimpse

Verb

morsel (third-person singular simple present morsels, present participle (US) morseling or (UK) morselling, simple past and past participle (US) morseled or (UK) morselled)

(transitive) To divide into small pieces.

Synonyms:

morselize
(obsolete, rare, transitive) To feed with small pieces of food.

morsel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

morsel in Marathi

a morsel; a mouthful; a bite of food: घास ghās

morsel in Urdu

morsel: کھنڈ khanḍ

More languagesFewer languages

morsel in Bengali: লোকমা lōkma
morsel in Malayalam: ഉരുള, ശകലം
morsel in Kannada: ತುತ್ತು, ತುಣುಕು, ಗ್ರಾಸ, ಬಾಯ್ಕುಟುಕು
morsel in Gujarati: ટુકડો ṭukṛo
morsel in Arabic: قَطْمَة qaṭma
morsel in Malay: cebis
morsel in Persian: لقمه loqme, تیکه tikke

Examples of morsel in a sentence

But in the bowl of duck-confit morsels, some pieces were toothsome and others were flabbier.
“Flatbread with a morsel or two of pork baked into it,” Tamsin explained.
And the man gave a morsel of live cowmeat to the gently hoisted head.

All 17 example sentences with morsel

Synonyms of morsel

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of morsel

Forms of morsel

Noun
plural	morsels
alternative form	morcel
Verb
third-person singular present	morsels
present participle US	morseling
present participle UK	morselling
past participle US	morseled
past US	morseled
past participle UK	morselled
past UK	morselled

Plural of morsel: morsels

Origin of morsel

From Middle English morsel, from Old French morsel, from Medieval Latin morsellum (“a bit, a little piece”), diminutive of Latin morsum (“a bit”), neuter of morsus, perfect passive participle of mordeo (“to bite”). Compare French morceau, whence the English doublet morceau.

Words formed from morsel

Words that rhyme with morsel

27 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about morsel

What does morsel mean?: Morsel means a small fragment or share of something, commonly applied to food.
What is morsel in Hindi?: Morsel in Hindi is कौर (kaur). See Morsel meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is morsel?: Morsel can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce morsel?: Morsel is pronounced /ˈmɔːsəl/ (UK).
What is the plural of morsel?: The plural of morsel is morsels.

Words near morsel in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-morsel.ogg.

Cite this entry: “morsel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/morsel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.