morsel - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English morsel, from Old French morsel, from Medieval Latin morsellum (“a bit, a little piece”), diminutive of Latin morsum (“a bit”), neuter of morsus, perfect passive participle of mordeo (“to bite”). Compare French morceau, whence the English doublet morceau.

morsel (plural morsels)

  1. A small fragment or share of something, commonly applied to food.
    • 1979, Roald Dahl, The Twits:
      By sticking out his tongue and curling it sideways to explore the hairy jungle around his mouth, he was always able to find a tasty morsel here and there to nibble on.
    • 1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 122:
      If a morsel of food fell off your plate, the advice of one contemporary document was to pick it up, make the sign of the cross over it, season it well - and then eat it.
  2. A mouthful of food.
    • 1644, James Howell, England’s Teares, for the Present Wars, […], London: […] Richard Heron, →OCLC, page 4:
      Me thinks I ſee the Turke nodding vvith his Turban, and telling me that I ſhould thanke Heaven for that diſtance vvhich is betvvixt us, els he vvould ſvvallovv me all up at one morſell; […]
  3. A very small amount.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:modicum
    • 2008, Pamela Griffin, New York Brides, Barbour Publishing, →ISBN, page 70:
      Didn't even a morsel of decency remain in his brother?

small fragment

a mouthful of food

morsel (third-person singular simple present morsels, present participle (US) morseling or (UK) morselling, simple past and past participle (US) morseled or (UK) morselled)

  1. (transitive) To divide into small pieces.
    Synonym: morselize
  2. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To feed with small pieces of food.

Borrowed from Old French morsel, morsiel, morcel, from Medieval Latin morsellum.

morsel (plural morsels)

  1. A small piece or fragment of something; a morsel.
    1. (especially) A piece of food; a bite or mouthful.
    2. (figuratively) Something delicate predated upon or enjoyed.
  2. A snack; a small meal.

From Medieval Latin morsellum (“a bit, a little piece”), diminutive of Latin morsum (“a bit”), neuter of morsus, past participle of mordeō, mordēre (“bite, nibble, gnaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)merd- (“to rub, wipe; to pack, rob”).

morsel oblique singular, m (oblique plural morseaus or morseax or morsiaus or morsiax or morsels, nominative singular morseaus or morseax or morsiaus or morsiax or morsels, nominative plural **morsel)

  1. morsel; bit; piece