packet--prophetes.ai

▪ I. packet, n.
    (ˈpækɪt)
    Also 6–9 pacquet, 7 paquette, 8–9 paquet.
    [Dim. of pack n.¹ Cf. F. pacquet (1530 in Palsgr.), paquet (1539 in R. Estienne), It. pacchetto (Florio 1611), Sp. paquete.
    The Fr. and Eng. forms appear together in Palsgrave 1530; Hatz.-Darm. say the Fr. was from the Eng., and as paquet is masc., it could hardly be the dim. of obs. F. pacque fem., which would have been pa(c)quette. Possibly the Eng. was orig. an AngloFr. dim. of pack. The It. and Sp. forms are late, and app. from Fr.]
    1. a. A small pack, package, or parcel: in earliest use applied to a parcel of letters or dispatches, and esp. to the State parcel or ‘mail’ of dispatches to and from foreign countries.

1530 Palsgr. 250/2 Pacquet of letters, pacquet de lettres. 1533 Brian Tuke Let. to Cromwell 17 Aug., I wrote unto my Lorde of Northumberlande, to write on the bak of his pacquettes the houre and day of the depeche. a 1548 Sir E. Howard in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. I. 151, I send you in this paquet a lettre to my wife. 1599 J. Frauncis (Chester Post) in Cecil Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.) IX. 377, I cannot hear of any passage..out of Ireland, saving the post bark which brought over two packets. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies vi. x. 452 How the Kings of Mexico and Peru had intelligence..seeing they had no vse of any letters, nor to write pacquets. 1653 in Hatton Corr. (Camden) 8 Your great packuitt is come to my hand. 1693 Massachus. P.O. Act, A pacquett shall be accounted 3 letters at the least. 1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Mar 21 Nov., I foresee I shall swell my letter to the size of a pacquet. 1762 Gentl. Mag. 53 His Excellency was making up a pacquet, which was to be sent to Berlin by his running footman. 1803 in M. Cutler's Life, etc. (1888) II. 304 We..present you a paquet of plants. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 393 The difficulty and expense of conveying large packets from place to place. 1871 T. T. Cooper Pioneer Commerce ix. 250, I..produced a packet of photographs of friends. 1875 Ure's Dict. Arts II. 728 Thus the packet [of leaf gold] becomes sufficiently compact to bear beating with a hammer of 15 or 16 pounds weight.

b. fig. A small collection, set, or lot (of things or persons): cf. pack n.¹ 3.
Sometimes (with obvious reference to a packet of letters or news), a false report, a falsehood, a ‘packet of lies’: cf. galley-packet. to sell one a packet (colloq.): to tell him a falsehood, take him in, ‘sell’ him.

1589 Nashe Pref. Greene's Menaphon (Arb.) 6 The Italionate pen, that of a packet of pilfries, affoordeth the presse a pamphlet or two. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 93 The Heathenish and Popish, and..other packets of miracles. 1766 in J. H. Jesse Geo. Selwyn & Contemp. (1843) II. 72, I thank you, my dear George, for including me in your pacquet of friends. 1796 Grose Class. Dict., Packet, a false report. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xix, Dorothy had..possessed herself of a slight packet of the rumours which were flying abroad. 1886 T. Hardy Mayor Casterbr. xliii, It never crossed my mind that the man was selling me a packet.

c. As title of a periodical publication containing news, etc.

1678–9 (title) The Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome. 1683 T. Hoy Agathocles 6 The loathsome Cries Of daily Letters, Pacquetts, Mercurys. 1735 H. Scougal's Life of God, etc. Pref., The..Society for promoting Christian Knowledge..judged it worthy a place in their Annual Packet to their corresponding members. 1851 (title) The Monthly Packet of Evening Readings.

d. transf. Applied to natural formations.

1658 Evelyn Fr. Gard. (1675) 104 Caterpillars are easily gathered off during all the winter, taking away the packets which cleave about the branches. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 513 The texture of the heart is fleshy,..consisting of packets of fibres, more or less oblique.

e. A small pile or set of cards. rare.

1887 M. W. Jones Games Patience ii. 9 The object..is..to build up packets from the ace to the king.

f. slang (chiefly Mil.). A bullet or other missile; hence, trouble, misfortune; to stop (or cop, etc.) a packet, to be killed or wounded; to get into trouble; to be reprimanded.

1917 P. MacGill Brown Brethren xx. 284 Wot's she doin' standin' out in the street like that?.. She'll stop a packet if she's not careful. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 219 Packet, a bullet wound, e.g. it would be said of a wounded man:—He ‘stopped a packet’ or ‘bought a packet’—i.e., got hit by a bullet. Also, any trouble or unexpected bad luck. 1933 D. L. Sayers Murder must Advertise vii. 120 I'm really fearfully sorry you copped that packet that was meant for me. 1946 J. Irving Royal Navalese 130 Packet, trouble, in some form or another. ‘So-and-so caught his packet on the Russian convoys’... ‘Smithie caught a packet from {oqq}The Bloke{cqq}.’ 1948 Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang 135 Blimey, old Bill didn't half cop a packet from the C.O. 1958 B. Hamilton Too Much of Water xi. 236, I was a bit vague as to when Swete got his packet. 1960 ‘H. Carmichael’ Seeds of Hate viii. 70 Frank Mitchell copped a packet on the river bank. 1978 A. Price '44 Vintage iii. 39 We've been disbanded... The same thing's happening to the 2nd Northants, they've caught a packet too.

g. A large sum of money. slang.

1922 M. Arlen Piracy iii. viii. 214 Tarlyan and Cypress had both won a packet at chemin de fer. 1928 Wodehouse in Strand Mag. Aug. 114/1 ‘Get in on the short end,’ said Aurelia earnestly, ‘and you'll make a packet.’ 1930 W. S. Maugham Bread-Winner ii. 76 It cost me a packet. 1955 ‘E. C. R. Lorac’ Ask Policeman vii. 101 Lived in style for years and must have spent a packet. 1959 J. Fleming Miss Bones xv. 171 I've cleaned up a nice little packet..but Walpurgis still owes me quite a bit. 1966 J. Betjeman High & Low 74, I bet your racket brings you in a pretty packet. 1972 P. D. James Unsuitable Job iii. 80 That awful cross of roses... Poor old nanny, it must have cost her a packet.

h. Physics. A localized disturbance of a field or medium that retains its identity as it travels; usu. = wave packet (wave n. 10).

1928 Proc. R. Soc. A. CXVII. 278 We may imagine that by means of Heisenberg's γ-ray microscope we have detected an electron near a hydrogen nucleus in the form of a packet like (5·4) with x₀, etc., so adjusted that on the older quantum theory the particle would describe the nth circular quantum orbit. 1934 Discovery May 125/1 Photons (quanta or packets of electro-magnetic energy) are in general more efficient in bringing about atomic changes than particles of corresponding energy. 1956 A. A. Townsend Struct. Turbulent Shear Flow v. 102 If this is true, a packet of turbulent fluid that has been moved across the flow by large eddy motion will have a turbulent intensity determined by its rate of energy gain over a considerable part of its previous existence as turbulent fluid. 1970 Nature 29 Aug. 937/2 As long as the incoming packet is spatially sharp enough, the reflected packet will manifestly carry information about the scattering mass.

2. Short for packet-boat.

1709 Steel Tatler No. 107 ¶1 You may easily reach Harwich in a Day, so as to be there when the Packet goes off. 1800 Wellesley in Owen Desp. 667 Monthly packets should be established to sail regularly both from Europe and India. 1852 J. R. Planché Invisible Prince ii. 14 Fierce whiskered gents,..Smoked bad cigars, on board the penny packets. 1874 W. E. Hall Rights & Duties Neutrals 72 Vessels of the type of the packets plying between Dover and Calais. a 1936 Kipling Something of Myself (1937) ii. 26 Turkey..turned up, usually a day or two late, by the Irish packet, aloof, inscrutable.

3. attrib. and Comb. Carrying a packet or packets, as packet-bark, packet-ship, packet-steamer, packet-vessel (= packet-boat); packet-carrier, packet-horse; put up or sold in packets, as packet cigarettes, packet goods, packet mix, packet soup, packet tea, packet tobacco; packet-day (see quot.); † packet-mail, a ‘mail’ or bag containing letters or papers, a mail-bag (obs.); packet-note, a size of note-paper, 9 by 11 inches the sheet; packet rat, a derogatory name for a seaman, spec. one who specialized in the short voyage across the Atlantic; packet-switching vbl. n., a mode of data transmission in which a message is broken into a number of parts or ‘packets’ which are sent independently, over whatever route is optimum for each packet, and re-assembled at the destination; so packet-switched ppl. a.

1806 Bowles Banwell Hill i. 320 The gay *packet-bark, to Erin bound.

1606 Dekker Newes fr. Hell Wks. (Grosart) II. 122 The *Packet-caryer (that all this while wayted on the other side), cride A boate, a boat.

1909 Westm. Gaz. 5 June 11/1 The demand for *packet cigarettes..has given rise to the manufacture..of special brands.

1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Packet-day, the mail-day; the day for posting letters, or for the departure of a ship.

1958 Observer 9 Feb. 5/3 *Packet goods... Loose goods. 1977 ‘J. Fraser’ Hearts Ease ix. 103 Shelves of tinned and packet goods.

1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2485/4 Three Persons on Horseback set upon the Chester Mail..taking the *Pacquet-Horse and Pacquet into an adjacent Wood.

1663 Gerbier Counsel 8 Postillions hasten with the *Packet-Maile to the Post Office. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 61 About her neck a Packet-Male, Fraught with Advice, some fresh, some stale.

1968 D. E. Allen Brit. Tastes i. 35 Housewives in the South are fonder of all the speeded-up ways of cooking...*Packet mixes are used with less compunction.

1894 Stevenson & Osbourne Ebb-Tide ii. ix. 172, I fought my way, third mate, round the Cape Horn with a push of *packet-rats that would have turned the devil out of hell and shut the door on him. 1906 Daily Chron. 11 Aug. 4/6 It is almost as far a cry from the days of the Liverpool ‘packet rat’ as it is from the craft of to-day to the ‘coffin ships’ of Plimsoll memory. 1920 Punch 7 Apr. 266/1 An' the blessed lights o' Liverpool a-winkin' through the rain To welcome us poor packet⁓rats come back to port again. 1935 J. Masefield Victorious Troy 68 ‘Who in hell said {oqq}Time, too?{cqq}’ Cobb asked... ‘Which of your damned packet-rats said {oqq}Time, too{cqq}, then?’ 1967 A. L. Lloyd Folk Song in England iv. 296 The packet-rats sailing under the house-flags of the Black Ball, Red Star, Dramatic and Swallowtail lines.

1782 R. Morris Let. 7 Oct. in J. Jay Corr. & Public Papers (1891) II. 349 Joshua Barney..[is] now commanding the *Packet Ship General Washington. 1837 A. Langton Jrnl. in Gentlewoman Upper Canada (1950) 9, I should strongly recommend avoiding a crowded packet-ship..or perhaps a packet-ship at all. 1842 Dickens in Harper's Mag. (1884) Jan. 217/1, I made arrangements for returning home in the George Washington packet-ship.

1962 Which? Jan. 20/1 For convenience in shopping, the *packet soups (the least heavy and bulky) are obviously better than the tinned soups. 1974 A. Ross Bradford Business 125 We stoked up hurriedly on packet soup and woody pork chops.

1865 T. P. Kettell Hist. Great Rebellion xx. 246 These two vessels had been *packet-steamers, running to New York. 1883 E. Eggleston Hoosier School-Boy 115 The little packet-steamer was landing at the wharf.

1972 Proc. Inst. Electr. Engineers CXIX. 1677 (heading) Proposed organisation for *packet-switched data-communication network. 1980 Financial Rev. (Austral.) 22 Apr. 3/3 A cheap alternative, the use of OTC's Midas packet-switched network where tariffs are based on volume of information rather than time, is being investigated. 1985 P. Laurie Databases i. 30 The major telephone services have ‘Packet Switched Networks’ which transmit data at rates of around 50000 bits per second nationally and internationally.

1972 Times 17 May (Suppl.) p. iii/8 The technique..is known as ‘store and forward’ or *packet-switching... Only when the message has been completely and accurately received is it forwarded to the next centre. 1976 Times 8 June 10/8 In Data transmission, the new ‘packet switching’ technique which has evolved from message-switching (as opposed to circuit-switching) systems is being applied in a number of networks. 1986 Times 4 Mar. 22 New videotex targets to hack and new radio and packet-switching services to use.

c 1870 in A. Davis Package & Print (1967) Pl. 192 (Advt.), Niblett's farm house bread stores... Agent for the celebrated *packet tea. 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 1 Packet Teas packed on the estates in China and India. 1931 N. & Q. 14 Nov. 353/2 One of the earliest distributors of packet tea was the one-time old-fashioned firm of Horniman. 1976 Times 28 July 1/6 Packet tea and large, sliced loaves are among the eight foods for which manufacturers have voluntarily restricted prices.

1894 Westm. Gaz. 14 Feb. 2/1 Twenty years ago there were scarcely a dozen *packet tobaccos; now they are innumerable.

▪ II. ˈpacket, v.
[f. packet n.: cf. F. paqueter (Cotgr. 1611).]
1. trans. To make up into, or wrap up in, a packet.

1621 Summary of Du Bartas To Rdr. *iv b, So many wonders as I behold enstated and packeted vp in a paucity of Verses. a 1745 Swift Lett. (R.), My resolution is to send you all your letters well sealed and packeted. 1755 H. Walpole Lett. (1846) III. 157 When Mr. Müntz has done, you will be so good as to pacquet him up, and send him to Straw⁓berry. 1853 E. S. Sheppard Ch. Auchester i, There was unction in the packeted, ticketed drugs.

† 2. trans. To dispatch by packet-boat. Obs.

1638 Ford Fancies i. i, The young lord of Telamon, her husband, Was packeted to France, to study courtship.

† b. intr. To ply with a packet-boat. Obs.

1806 Webster Dict., Packet, to ply with a packet. 1813 Boston Daily Advertiser 9 Mar. 3/4 The subscribers respectfully inform the publick that they continue the packeting business between Providence and New York.