[syn: piecemeal, little by little, bit by bit, in stages]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Piecemeal \Piece"meal`\, n.
   A fragment; a scrap. --R. Vaughan.
   [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Piecemeal \Piece"meal`\, adv. [OE. pecemele; pece a piece + AS.
   m?lum, dat. pl. of m?l part. See Meal a portion.]
   1. In pieces; in parts or fragments. "On which it piecemeal
      brake." --Chapman.
      [1913 Webster]
            The beasts will tear thee piecemeal.  --Tennyson.
      [1913 Webster]
   2. Piece by piece; by little and little in succession.
      [1913 Webster]
            Piecemeal they win, this acre first, than that.
                                                  --Pope.
      [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Piecemeal \Piece"meal`\, a.
   Made up of parts or pieces; single; separate. "These
   piecemeal guilts." --Gov. of Tongue.
   [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
piecemeal
    adv 1: a little bit at a time; "the research structure has
           developed piecemeal" [syn: piecemeal, little by
           little, bit by bit, in stages]
    adj 1: one thing at a time [syn: bit-by-bit, in small
           stages, piecemeal, step-by-step, stepwise]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
40 Moby Thesaurus words for "piecemeal":
   adrift, apart, apart from, aside from, asunder, away from,
   bit by bit, by degrees, by inches, by inchmeal, by snatches,
   disjointed, drop by drop, fitfully, foot by foot, fragmentary,
   gradual, gradually, in detail, in driblets, in installments,
   in lots, in small doses, in snatches, in the abstract, in twain,
   in two, inch by inch, inchmeal, intermittently, little by little,
   one by one, part by part, piece by piece, separately, severally,
   slowly, sporadic, sporadically, step-by-step