How to use piecemeal in a sentence

11 example sentences · adjective, adverb, verb

Piecemeal means made or done in pieces or one stage at a time. Example: “Such assistance, I am convinced, must not be on a piecemeal basis, as various crises develop.”

Examples of piecemeal by meaning

adjectiveMade or done in pieces or one stage at a time.

a piecemeal approach
Such assistance, I am convinced, must not be on a piecemeal basis, as various crises develop.1947, George Marshall, The Marshall Plan Speech
There is no need to invoke the idea of systematic pagan survival to account for this: Europe’s mass Christianization had been a steady if piecemeal process from the sixth century through to the fourteenth.2003, Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History, Penguin, →ISBN, page 16

adverbPiece by piece; in small amounts, stages, or degrees.

It’s as bad as selling a man a horse with half a dozen latent vices and watching him discover them piecemeal in the course of the hunting season.1914, Saki, The Forbidden Buzzards
The Western Region route, by contrast, was built up piecemeal and was not shaped in its present form until 1910.1960 February, R. C. Riley, “The London-Birmingham services - Past, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 96
The Government is under fresh pressure not to sell off piecemeal the route of the abandoned northern extension to Manchester until extra rail capacity has been clearly identified.2024 May 1, Howard Johnston, “Network News: TfN plan reiterates plea to preserve abandoned HS2 land”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 12

More sentences with piecemeal

Our attention spans have been chopped up and commodified, sold off piecemeal to platforms and algorithms.2023 June 21, A. O. Scott, “Everyone Likes Reading. Why Are We So Afraid of It?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry commodify
It is our conviction that piecemeal critiques of nontheisms will not suffice.2003, Norman L. Geisler, Winfried Corduan, Philosophy of Religion: Second Edition, page 9. From the entry his
For the last twenty-four hours it’s been shifting west, by now past the Marshall Islands, that fragile tracery of sinking lands so piecemeal and storm-worn.2023, Samantha Harvey, Orbital, Jonathan Cape, page 23. From the entry Marshall Islands
And the piecemeal approach that majority leader Frist has taken along with the Republican leadership of the Congress isn't going to advance the ball.2006 September 26, 'Day to Day', GOP Looks for Immigration Win Before Elections (radio), spoken by Ken Salazar, via NPR. From the entry advance the ball
We have, then, in the one space a concept which shows no traces of the piecemeal process by which it has been achieved.1900, Alexander Thomas Ormond, Foundations of Knowledge, in Three Parts, Macmillan and Company, Limited, page 139. From the entry seamlessness

Meaning of piecemeal

adjective Made or done in pieces or one stage at a time.
adverb Piece by piece; in small amounts, stages, or degrees.
adverb Into pieces or parts.

Full definition of piecemeal

Questions about piecemeal in a sentence

How do you use piecemeal in a sentence?: Piecemeal is used as an adjective, adverb and verb. For example: “Such assistance, I am convinced, must not be on a piecemeal basis, as various crises develop.”
What is a short sentence with piecemeal?: “a piecemeal approach”
What does piecemeal mean?: Piecemeal means made or done in pieces or one stage at a time.

Adapted from Wiktionary: piecemeal (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use piecemeal in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/piecemeal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.