: done, made, or accomplished piece by piece or in a fragmentary way
piecemeal reforms in the system
Synonyms
Examples of piecemeal in a Sentence
Adverb
remodeled their house piecemeal because of budgetary constraints
one well-aimed blow ripped the piñata piecemeal
Adjective
They've done piecemeal repairs in the past, but the bridge now needs major reconstruction.
Some people want the changes to be made all at once, but I think we should take a more piecemeal approach.
Recent Examples on the Web
Dennis Harvey, Variety, 23 Jan. 2024
If Reddit wouldn’t ban the users outright, volunteers would do it piecemeal.
—Paresh Dave, WIRED, 14 Mar. 2024
Key to drinking water supply, wildlife The county purchased the first 10,000 acres of the preserve in 1986, and more tracts of land were added piecemeal over the next dozen years.
—Ryan Ballogg, Miami Herald, 29 Feb. 2024
At best, Biden has found a way to achieve piecemeal what he was prohibited from achieving in one fell swoop.
—The Editors, National Review, 22 Feb. 2024
Johnson has hinted at the possibility of breaking apart the Senate package to vote piecemeal on the foreign aid provisions.
—Marianna Sotomayor, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2024
The land was owned piecemeal by various agencies and private landowners, many of whom weren’t happy with the people trespassing on their property.
—Nicole Blanchard, Idaho Statesman, 31 Jan. 2024
The ability to gut-renovate an entire campus instead of patching up problems piecemeal opens up a new set of options.
—Curbed, 9 Jan. 2024
But the few hostage testimonies that have been made public so far have been piecemeal, in many cases conveyed secondhand through family members.
—Max Kim, Los Angeles Times, 20 Dec. 2023
Michael Kimmage, Foreign Affairs, 13 Mar. 2024
Still, the content was pretty good and is now finding new homes as real movies, not a piecemeal experiment: Director Veena Sud's thriller ratchets up the suspense with Maika Monroe playing a rideshare driver and Dane DeHaan as the creepiest passenger ever.
—Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 19 Apr. 2024
However, piecemeal measures alone will not solve the issue, as a longer-term demographic transition is unfolding worldwide.
—Miglė Petrauskaitė, Fortune, 10 Apr. 2024
There is some evidence that few voters have heard about these piecemeal efforts since the Supreme Court scuttled the larger loan forgiveness plan.
—Monica Potts, ABC News, 9 Apr. 2024
Unlike the typical process in which open spaces are preserved in one large chunk, the creation of the Ohlone Regional Wilderness trail was a piecemeal effort with no guarantee of success.
—Will McCarthy, The Mercury News, 8 Apr. 2024
In her first days as mayor, Ms. Bass met with members of the City Council, who previously took a piecemeal approach to homelessness, and the head of the city’s public transit agency.
—Jill Cowan, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2024
Many of the obstacles to any exit ramp need to be removed simultaneously, rather than in a piecemeal fashion, said Mr. Koplow, the Israel Policy Forum analyst.
—Patrick Kingsley, New York Times, 5 Apr. 2024
But the administration had a backup plan: The Department of Education would leverage the Higher Education Act of 1965, utilizing the neg reg process to adjust the law and enable relief in a more piecemeal fashion.
—USA TODAY, 18 Jan. 2024
Adverb
There is explanatory backstory — however piecemeal and possibly-inaccurate — but otherwise writer-director Chris Nash’s first feature approaches the usual bloody business with a sort of minimalist purity, enabled by focusing almost wholly on the POV of one Unstoppable Killing Machine.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 23 Jan. 2024
If Reddit wouldn’t ban the users outright, volunteers would do it piecemeal.
—Paresh Dave, WIRED, 14 Mar. 2024
Key to drinking water supply, wildlife The county purchased the first 10,000 acres of the preserve in 1986, and more tracts of land were added piecemeal over the next dozen years.
—Ryan Ballogg, Miami Herald, 29 Feb. 2024
At best, Biden has found a way to achieve piecemeal what he was prohibited from achieving in one fell swoop.
—The Editors, National Review, 22 Feb. 2024
Johnson has hinted at the possibility of breaking apart the Senate package to vote piecemeal on the foreign aid provisions.
—Marianna Sotomayor, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2024
The land was owned piecemeal by various agencies and private landowners, many of whom weren’t happy with the people trespassing on their property.
—Nicole Blanchard, Idaho Statesman, 31 Jan. 2024
The ability to gut-renovate an entire campus instead of patching up problems piecemeal opens up a new set of options.
—Curbed, 9 Jan. 2024
But the few hostage testimonies that have been made public so far have been piecemeal, in many cases conveyed secondhand through family members.
—Max Kim, Los Angeles Times, 20 Dec. 2023
Adjective
Such piecemeal militarization is the defining feature of wartime Putinism, which is repressive but only episodically Orwellian.
—Michael Kimmage, Foreign Affairs, 13 Mar. 2024
Still, the content was pretty good and is now finding new homes as real movies, not a piecemeal experiment: Director Veena Sud's thriller ratchets up the suspense with Maika Monroe playing a rideshare driver and Dane DeHaan as the creepiest passenger ever.
—Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 19 Apr. 2024
However, piecemeal measures alone will not solve the issue, as a longer-term demographic transition is unfolding worldwide.
—Miglė Petrauskaitė, Fortune, 10 Apr. 2024
There is some evidence that few voters have heard about these piecemeal efforts since the Supreme Court scuttled the larger loan forgiveness plan.
—Monica Potts, ABC News, 9 Apr. 2024
Unlike the typical process in which open spaces are preserved in one large chunk, the creation of the Ohlone Regional Wilderness trail was a piecemeal effort with no guarantee of success.
—Will McCarthy, The Mercury News, 8 Apr. 2024
In her first days as mayor, Ms. Bass met with members of the City Council, who previously took a piecemeal approach to homelessness, and the head of the city’s public transit agency.
—Jill Cowan, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2024
Many of the obstacles to any exit ramp need to be removed simultaneously, rather than in a piecemeal fashion, said Mr. Koplow, the Israel Policy Forum analyst.
—Patrick Kingsley, New York Times, 5 Apr. 2024
But the administration had a backup plan: The Department of Education would leverage the Higher Education Act of 1965, utilizing the neg reg process to adjust the law and enable relief in a more piecemeal fashion.
—USA TODAY, 18 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'piecemeal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Piecemeal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piecemeal. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
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