MORSEL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does morsel mean? 

• MORSEL (noun)
  The noun MORSEL has 2 senses:

1. a small quantity of anything

2. a small amount of solid food; a mouthful

  Familiarity information: MORSEL used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MORSEL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small quantity of anything

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Context example:

a morsel of paper was all he needed

Hypernyms ("morsel" is a kind of...):

small indefinite amount; small indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A small amount of solid food; a mouthful

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

bit; bite; morsel

Context example:

all they had left was a bit of bread

Hypernyms ("morsel" is a kind of...):

mouthful; taste (a small amount eaten or drunk)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "morsel"):

chaw; chew; cud; plug; quid; wad (a wad of something chewable as tobacco)

crumb (small piece of e.g. bread or cake)

sop; sops (piece of solid food for dipping in a liquid)

 Context examples 

“Yes! All day! And you won't mind things going a tiny morsel wrong, sometimes?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was just going to run, when I caught sight of a morsel of a child carrying a big book, and stopped, to see what was going on.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I want a night's shelter in an out-house or anywhere, and a morsel of bread to eat.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Come, take these two wicked girls, they are tender morsels for you, fat as young quails; for mercy’s sake eat them!

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I answered in a few words, but in the most submissive manner, lifting up my left hand, and both my eyes to the sun, as calling him for a witness; and being almost famished with hunger, having not eaten a morsel for some hours before I left the ship, I found the demands of nature so strong upon me, that I could not forbear showing my impatience (perhaps against the strict rules of decency) by putting my finger frequently to my mouth, to signify that I wanted food.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

As night drew on, the clouds darkened and the wind freshened, so that when Maud and I ate supper it was with our mittens on and with me still steering and eating morsels between puffs.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“Not a morsel,” said my aunt.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I had one morsel of bread yet: the remnant of a roll I had bought in a town we passed through at noon with a stray penny—my last coin.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

On the way into the forest Hansel crumbled his in his pocket, and often stood still and threw a morsel on the ground.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

A literary spinster, with a pen for a spouse, a family of stories for children, and twenty years hence a morsel of fame, perhaps, when, like poor Johnson, I'm old and can't enjoy it, solitary, and can't share it, independent, and don't need it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)