From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpiecemealpiece‧meal /ˈpiːsmiːl/ adjective CONTINUE/NOT STOPa process that is piecemeal happens slowly and in stages that are not regular or planned properly The buildings have been adapted in a piecemeal fashion. a piecemeal approach to the problem —piecemeal adverb The new fire regulations have been introduced piecemeal.
Examples from the Corpus
piecemeal• The use of resources was a piecemeal affair.• Milosevic has granted piecemeal concessions while sowing the kind of confusion that he has used in the past to stymie opponents.• Both were piecemeal efforts, too far from the city centre, whose shops and businesses drive the local economy.• To his disappointments it developed in a piecemeal fashion.• The proposals are intended as a package and not for piecemeal negotiation.• Nor did they see any future in piecemeal political reform of the autocracy.• She was struggling to save a patchwork system of segregated education by piecemeal projects.• Why is it fair to pass piecemeal reforms for powerful industries?• Improvements have been largely piecemeal, without adequate government support.in a piecemeal fashion• The charges against Sutyagin can, therefore, be established only in piecemeal fashion.• The cuckoo's adaptations were simply too perfect to have evolved bit by bit, in piecemeal fashion.• To his disappointments it developed in a piecemeal fashion.• The process of drainage and enclosure was probably occurring in a piecemeal fashion all through the late Saxon period.• They may conceive of it in piecemeal fashion, recognising particular boundaries as and when it is unavoidably necessary to do so.Origin piecemeal (1200-1300) piece + -meal “by one part at a time” ((11-19 centuries)) (from Old English mælum) 