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piecemeal

/ˈpiːsmiːl//ˈpiːsmiːl/·adjective, adverb
done gradually, one piece or stage at a time
Fig. 1 — I watch someone wait at the edge of a chasm to cross.
01Definition

Piecemeal means done in fragments, one bit at a time, rather than in a single planned sweep. It usually carries a faint criticism: a piecemeal reform handles problems as they surface instead of by one coherent design, which is why piecemeal efforts can leave a project stagnant for years. The old ending '-meal' means 'by measures', and that is the heart of it — progress dribbled out in disconnected pieces, with no unifying plan to hold them together.

02In use
  • iFunding arrived piecemeal, so the bridge was built in disconnected sections over a decade.
  • iiReforms introduced piecemeal rarely add up to anything a citizen can follow.
  • iiiRather than rebuild the system at once, the team patched it piecemeal, and the result was never robust.
03Collocations
  • a piecemeal approach
  • done piecemeal
  • piecemeal reform
  • in piecemeal fashion
  • piecemeal changes
04Relations

=gradual, fragmentary, incremental, bit-by-bit, sporadic

≠wholesale, systematic, comprehensive

06TOEFL & IELTS

Works as both adjective and adverb with no '-ly' form ('built piecemeal', 'a piecemeal approach'). In essays it usually signals a lack of overall planning, so it leans negative — a useful contrast word against 'systematic' or 'comprehensive'.

07Asked
What does the '-meal' in piecemeal have to do with food?
Only a shared ancestor — the -meal here is a fossil. Old English mæl meant a fixed time or measure, so piecemeal is literally 'one measure at a time'. The dinner sense of meal grew from the same root, a set time for eating, and outlived its siblings: English once had littlemeal ('little by little') and dropmeal ('drop by drop'), and piecemeal is the last of that family still working.
What is a piecemeal approach?
A patch-here, fix-there way of working that answers each problem as it arrives. The phrase lives in policy and planning critique, where its standing opposite is a holistic or systematic approach — essay prompts routinely stage the two against each other. The scene's bridge shows why the criticism sticks: a plank wherever one happens to arrive, and nobody crosses until the last stray gap finally fills.
Is piecemeal an adjective or an adverb?
Both, with no -ly form — and the adverb has a fixed seat: after the verb phrase. Reforms arrive piecemeal; the report was written piecemeal — never 'piecemeal written'. As an adjective it goes before its noun as usual: a piecemeal reform. If you catch yourself writing 'piecemeally', delete the tail; the bare word already is the adverb.
Is piecemeal always negative?
Usually, but not inherently. In essays it signals the absence of a plan — the opposite of systematic — and that reads as criticism. Technical registers use it neutrally, though: lawyers speak of piecemeal acquisition of shares, publishers of piecemeal publication. The tell is the alternative: where a coherent whole was possible, piecemeal is a complaint; where only pieces were possible, it is just a description.