parceling

Verb

parcel (third-person singular simple present parcels, present participle (US) parceling or (UK) parcelling, simple past and past participle (US) parceled or (UK) 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...
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...

See all 13 meanings of parcel

Noun

parcelling (plural parcellings)

1. One of the long, narrow slips of canvas daubed with tar and wound about a rope like a bandage, before it is served; used also in mousing on the stays, etc.
   • The wind continuing very light; all hands were sent aloft to strip off the chafing gear; and battens, parcellings, roundings, hoops, mats, and leathers, came flying from aloft, and left the rigging neat and clean, stripped of all its sea bandaging.1840, Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea, page 453
2. A system for dividing something up.
   • […] these are posterior Divisions, fallen upon as Brandenburg (under Albert chiefly) enlarged itself, and needed new Official parcellings into departments.1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia: Volume 2
3. (more specifically) The division of land into parcels.
   • The parcelling of large estates into smaller agricultural units swelled the area of peasants' land by 1,759,000 acres.1913 February, George Goṡcicki, “Agrarian Conditions in the Kingdom of Poland”, in Russian Review: A Quarterly Review of Russian History, Politics, Economics, and Literature, volume 2, number 1, page...
4. The manner in which something is structured or packaged for sale, including the use of a specific size, material, color, font, etc.
   • Most of the commodities have their own special parcellings, in the absence of which its market would be impeded and prices would have a tendency to become artificial.1893, Bankers' Magazine, page 266