Definition of "parcel" in English

noun

1. A package wrapped for shipment.

   • I saw a brown paper parcel on my doorstep.

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.

5. (obsolete) A group of birds.

6. An indiscriminate or indefinite number, measure, or quantity; a collection; a group.

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.
   • 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.

verb

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.

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

adverb

1. (obsolete) Part or half; in part; partially.