Packet

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈpakɪt/

Alternative forms

• pacquet obsolete

Origin

Either from Middle French pacquet, or formed independently from pack + -et.

Full definition of packet

Noun

1. A small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel; as, a packet of letters, a packet of crisps, a packet of biscuits.
2. (nautical) Originally, a vessel employed by government to convey dispatches or mails; hence, a vessel employed in conveying dispatches, mails, passengers, and goods, and having fixed days of sailing; a mail boat. Packet boat, ship, vessel (Packet (sea transport)).
• 1910, w, The Purchase Price Chapter 1, With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where, at the end of the dock on which they stood, lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks.
3. (botany) A specimen envelope containing small, dried plants or containing parts of plants when attached to a larger sheet.
• Schuster Hepaticae V|viiWith fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get...
4. (networking) A small fragment of data as transmitted on some types of network, notably Ethernet networks (Network packet).
5. (South Africa) A plastic bag (http://www.iol.co.za/blogs/wendy-knowler-s-consumer-watch-1.1608/plastic-packets-who-bags-the-profits-1.1356896).

Verb

1. (transitive) To make up into a packet or bundle.
2. (transitive) To send in a packet or dispatch vessel.
• FordHer husband was packeted to France.
3. (intransitive) To ply with a packet or dispatch boat.