packetn.adj.
/ˈpakɪt/, U.S. /ˈpækət/ A. n.
1.
a. A small pack, package, or parcel. In later use frequently: the container or wrapping in which goods are sold; packaging; a bag or envelope for packing something in. Also: the contents of a packet.In early use chiefly used of a parcel of letters or dispatches, esp. the state parcel or mail in which letters to and from foreign countries were carried.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > correspondence > letter > mail > [noun] > packet or bag of
packet?a1450
mail1654
the world > space > relative position > arrangement or fact of being arranged > state of being gathered together > an assemblage or collection > [noun] > pack or parcel
pack1228
fardel1388
trussellc1440
pauchlea1450
butt1470
fardellage1489
trusser1519
parcel1692
package1757
packet1803
wrappage1883
compactum1907
bindle1916
?a1450 Miracles Our Lady in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1923) 38 364 (MED) Into a pekette trewly He toke þe siluer ech a penye And seled hit in her alres sight.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 250/2 Pacquet of letters, pacquet de lettres.
a1548 Sir E. Howard in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1846) 3rd Ser. I. 151 I send you in this paquet a lettre to my wife.
1584 A. Barlowe in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1589) iii. 730 When we shewed him all our packet of merchandize, of all things that he saw, a bright tinne dishe most pleased him.
1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall 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.
1693 Massachusetts P.O. Act A pacquett shall be accounted 3 letters at the least.
1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 21 Nov. (1965) I. 283 I foresee I shall swell my Letter to the size of a pacquet.
1762 Gentleman's Mag. (1806) Feb. 53/1 His Excellency..was making up a pacquet, which was to be sent to Berlin by his running footman.
1803 J. G. Klein & J. P. Rotter Let. 13 Sept. in W. P. Cutler & J. P. Cutler Life, Jrnls. & Corr. M. Cutler (1888) II. 304 We..present you a paquet of plants.
1871 T. T. Cooper Pioneer Commerce ix. 250 I..produced a packet of photographs of friends.
1928 Post Office Guide July 55 A special Blue Air Mail label should be affixed to the top left hand corner of every Air Mail packet.
1953 ‘N. Blake’ Dreadful Hollow 43 It [sc. a public bar] held only one occupant, who was eating out of a packet of crisps.
1994 Outdoor Canada May 28/1 In the other [pot] we tossed some macaroni, onion flakes, potato flakes, a packet of seafood chowder [etc.].
b. figurative. A collection or set (of things or people). Now chiefly in a packet of lies. Also to sell (a person) a packet (colloquial): to tell him or her a falsehood, to deceive. Cf. pack n.1 5.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > arrangement or fact of being arranged > state of being gathered together > an assemblage or collection > [noun] > small
packet1589
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > disregard for truth, falsehood > lie, tell (lies) [verb (transitive)] > deceive by lying
gabc1275
steeka1400
taradiddle1828
to sell (a person) a packet1886
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > cheating, fraud > cheat, swindle [phrase]
to pull a finchc1386
to wipe a person's nosea1475
to take (a person) at advantage(s)1523
to play fast and loose1557
to play false1576
to joint a person's nose of?1577
to make a cousin of1580
to sell smoke1589
munge1660
to sell (a person) a packet1886
to beat the count1897
to sell (a person) a pup1901
to hand (someone) a lemon1906
to sell (someone) a bill of goods1927
1589 T. Nashe To Students in R. Greene Menaphon Epist. sig. **v The Italionate pen, that of a packet of pilfries, affoordeth the presse a pamphlet or two.
1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 93 The Heathenish and Popish, and..other packets of miracles.
1725 E. F. Fowler Injur'd Husband 170 He..went to visit her with a Packet of Tidings, which he knew would render him a welcome Guest to a Lady of her inquisitive Temper.
1766 G. Williams Let. 17 Nov. in J. H. Jesse G. Selwyn & his Contemp. (1843) II. 72 I thank you, my dear George, for including me in your pacquet of friends.
1796 Grose's Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (ed. 3) Packet, a false report.
1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth vii, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. II. 188 Dorothy had..possessed herself of a slight packet of the rumours which were flying abroad.
1886 T. Hardy Mayor of Casterbridge II. xx. 289 It never crossed my mind that the man was selling me a packet.
1926 Times 24 Nov. 11/4 The article, said counsel, was a packet of lies, and its only object could have been to create such feelings of distrust and enmity.
1990 Village Voice (N.Y.) 30 Jan. 37/1 They hug her and hold fast to her hand or sleeve as they pour out their sad packet of lies.
c. A bulletin, a newsletter, esp. one published at regular intervals.Formerly common in the titles of newspapers.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > journalism > journal > newspaper > [noun] > other types of newspaper
gazette1607
contemporary1670
packet1678
exchange1798
funny paper1837
blanket sheet1839
broadsheet1840
special1861
cocoa press1907
bladder1936
regional1958
electronic paper1967
free1982
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 Life of God 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.
2002 Bangor (Maine) Daily News (Nexis) 27 Feb. c1 He likes to say the column is syndicated because it appears in three coastal weeklies: the Castine Patriot, The Weekly Packet, and Island Ad-Vantages.
d. In extended uses.
ΚΠ
1834 S. Cooper Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 513 The texture of the heart is fleshy,..consisting of packets of fibres, more or less oblique.
1966 W. Percy Last Gentleman v. i. 236 She shook her head and fed the hawk an intricate packet of viscera.
1986 C. O'Toole Encycl. Insects 22/2 Insects of the subclass Apterygota mate by transferring a sperm packet (or spermatophore) indirectly from the male to the female.
2002 Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) (Nexis) 19 Apr. 14 Tasty appetizers..such as the crispy pastry packets of meat, lentils and spices called Sambusa.
e. A pile of playing cards.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > card game > card or cards > [noun] > small pile of cards
packet1887
1887 M. W. Jones Games of Patience ii. 9 The object..is..to build up packets from the ace to the king.
1955 G. S. Coffin Poker Game Compl. (ed. 2) ii. 22 The next dealer passes the new pack to the last dealer who cuts it with at least five cards in each packet.
1983 D. Parlett Card Games for Everyone ii. 33 This results in 28 cards dealt face down in seven ‘packets’ whose contents range from one card to seven at the opposite end.
f. colloquial (originally Military). A bullet or other missile; a bullet wound; (more generally) trouble, misfortune. Only in to cop (also stop, catch, get, etc.) a packet: to be killed or wounded; (also) to get into trouble, to be reprimanded.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > kill [verb (intransitive)] > be killed
to be deadc1000
fallOE
spilla1300
suffera1616
to fall (a) prey (also victim, sacrifice) toa1774
to lose the number of one's mess1807
to go up1825
to get his (also hers, theirs)1903
to cop (also stop, catch, get, etc.) a packet1916
click1917
not to know (or to wonder) what hit one1923
to get the works1928
to go for a burton1941
(to get) the chop or chopper1945
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > rebuke or reproof > rebuke or reprove [verb (intransitive)] > be rebuked or scolded
to hear of it1598
to get on (also upon) the finger ends1693
to get one's lug in one's loof1744
to get wrong1803
to catch or get Jesse1839
to come in for it1841
to get hell1851
to cop (also stop, catch, get, etc.) a packet1916
to have a strip torn off1940
1916 Duke of Cambridge's Own ‘Fall in’ 22 Apr. 207/2 ‘Copped a packet’ or ‘clicked’..wounded.
1916 P. MacGill Red Horizon v. 59 One of our boys was seated..blood trickling down his arm on to his clothes..a red gash showing above the knee... ‘Stopped a packet, matey?’ Stoner enquired.
1925 E. Fraser & J. 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.
1927 P. MacDonald Patrol iv. 31 ‘Christ!’ The Jew laughed. ‘Thought you was a Buddoo, Sergeant. You nearly caught a packet.’
1933 D. L. Sayers Murder must Advertise vii. 120 I'm really fearfully sorry you copped that packet that was meant for me.
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.
1989 R. Curtis & B. Elton Blackadder goes Forth in R. Curtis et al. Blackadder: Whole Damn Dynasty (1998) 439/2 Blackadder. And Bumfluff himself? George. Copped a packet at Gallipoli with the Ozzies.
2007 North Devon Jrnl. (Nexis) 26 July 6 Regular Journal correspondent TP Gidman certainly copped a packet in last week's letters page concerning his missive about smoking.
g. colloquial (chiefly British). A large sum of money.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > sum of money > [noun] > large sum
pounda1225
ransom?a1300
fother14..
gob1542
mint1579
king's ransomc1590
abomination1604
coda1680
a pretty (also fine, fair, etc.) penny1710
plunk1767
big money1824
pot1856
big one?1863
a small fortune1874
four figures1893
poultice1902
parcel1903
bundle1905
pretty1909
real money1918
stack1919
packet1922
heavy sugar1926
motza1936
big bucks1941
bomb1958
wedge1977
megadollars1980
squillion1986
bank1995
1922 M. Arlen ‘Piracy’ iii. viii. 214 Tarlyan and Cypress had both won a packet at chemin de fer.
1930 W. S. Maugham Breadwinner ii. 76 It cost me 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.
1972 P. D. James Unsuitable Job iii. 80 That awful Tross of roses... Poor old nanny, it must have cost her a packet.
2000 Courier Mag. (Aberystwyth Univ. Students' Union) Dec. 30/1 The builders are making a packet due to the cracks appearing as the houses slide down Penglais hill.
h. South African. A plastic carrier bag, typically with handles; a shopping bag.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > receptacle or container > bag > [noun] > shopping-bag
shopping bag1849
pocky1880
shopping net1890
shopper1962
packet1977
1977 S. Afr. Outlook Feb. 32/3 In Greenmarket Square..a supermarket plastic packet placed next to some rubbish bags suddenly went off.
1980 G. Rattray Springing of Year 184 As the latter was tipped from the plastic packet onto the road, Mrs. Pot shot out a slippered foot and in a flash ground the scorpion into the dust.
1994 Deb. Senate (S. Afr.) 27 May 138/1 There is a serious threat to our entire environment, namely the scourge of plastic packets.
2005 R. Zadok Gem Squash Tokoloshe xx. 310 I park the van across the road from Rembrandt Butchery and watch as people go in and come out with blue and white striped packets.
2. Short for packet-boat n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessel for transporting people or goods > [noun] > packet or mailboat
post-boat1582
post-bark1599
post1600
post packet1634
packet-boat1642
packeta1670
post office packet1780
packet-ship1782
packet-bark1806
packet steamer1842
sailing-packet1842
mailboat1895
multipacket1965
a1670 J. Hacket Scrinia Reserata (1693) ii. ii. 5 Posts and Pacquets.
1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World vii. 171 Here we staid till the 6th day reading the Letters, by which we understood that the Armada from Old Spain was come to Portabel; and that the President of Panama had sent this Pacquet on purpose to hasten the Plate Fleet thither from Lima.
1709 R. Steel Tatler No. 107. ⁋1 You may easily reach Harwich in a Day, so as to be there when the Packet goes off.
1787 W. Beckford Portuguese Jrnl. 19 Nov. (1954) 269 Two Packets sailed in yesterday and have brought me a great many letters.
1800 Marquess Wellesley Let. 5 Mar. in Select. Despatches (1877) 667 Monthly packets should be established to sail regularly both from Europe and India.
1874 W. E. Hall Rights & Duties Neutrals 72 Vessels of the type of the packets plying between Dover and Calais.
1901 W. J. Stillman Autobiogr. Journalist I. 11 The Erie Canal was the quickest channel of communication westward, with its horse ‘packets’ traveling at the creditable speed of four miles an hour.
1988 F. Kaplan Dickens viii. 288 The cross-Channel packet brought welcome visitors.
3. Technical uses.
a. Physics. A localized disturbance of a field or medium that retains its identity as it travels; spec. a wave packet (see wave n. Compounds 2).
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > energy or power of doing work > [noun] > transmission of energy > travelling localized disturbances
packet1928
the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > wave mechanics > [noun] > localized disturbance
packet1928
wave packet1928
1928 Proc. Royal Soc. 1927–8 A. 117 278 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.
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.
1990 Sciences Mar. 34/1 The two biochemists proposed that their conformon have two basic properties: the ability to move through a rigid protein framework and some resemblance to a packet of energy.
b. Computing. A unit of data for transmission; a group of bits of fixed maximum size and well-defined format that is switched and transmitted as a composite whole through a packet-switching network, any message exceeding the maximum size being partitioned and carried as several packets. Frequently as a modifier, as in packet data, packet network, etc. Cf. packet-switching n. at Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > data > [noun] > unit of
bit1948
megabit1957
byte1964
MB1965
megabyte1965
packet1966
nibble1967
Mbit1968
Mbyte1972
MSB1972
meg1983
1966 D. Davies Proposal for Digital Communication Network (National Physical Laboratory) 9 The unit in which information is carried must be distinguished from the message as understood by the user... Smaller units for transmission must be distinguished and we shall call them ‘packets’.
1969 R. Binder Multiplexing in ALOHA Syst. iii. 8 The basic message unit to be handled by the system will be called a ‘packet’. A packet consists of up to 80 8-bit characters of information.
1981 80 Microcomputing Nov. 112/3 Promoters of this version expect industry standards similar to those allowing the various common carrier packet networks to interconnect worldwide.
1989 UnixWorld Sept. 101/1 Communications services today are characterized by dedicated access to separate network services—like voice, packet data, and digital data.
1995 Data Communications Internat. Jan. 21/1 This involves more than slicing and dicing continuous voice and video streams into manageable packets; it also involves streamlining transmissions.
c. Physiology. A quantum of neurotransmitter.
ΚΠ
1974 V. B. Mountcastle et al. Med. Physiol. (ed. 13) I. vi. 191/1 Spontaneously released multimolecular packets of transmitter agent.
1989 B. Alberts et al. Molecular Biol. Cell (ed. 2) xix. 1078 Each vesicle contains practically the same number of molecules of acetylcholine, on the order of 5000. This number represents the minimum packet or quantum of transmitter release.
1992 New Scientist 21 Nov. (Secret Life of Brain Suppl.) 6/3 It should be possible to use microelectrode techniques to discover whether LTP is accompanied by release of more packets at a time—a presynaptic effect—or by an increase in the effectiveness of the individual packets, implying that the postsynaptic neuron has become more sensitive.
B. adj. (attributive).
Contained in or sold in a packet or packets; (of a drink, meal, etc.) prepared from the contents of a packet.
ΚΠ
c1870 in A. Davis Package & Print (1967) Pl. 192 (advt.) Niblett's farm house bread stores... Agent for the celebrated packet tea.
1894 Westm. Gaz. 14 Feb. 2/1 Twenty years ago there were scarcely a dozen packet tobaccos; now they are innumerable.
1962 Which? Jan. 20/1 For convenience in shopping, the packet soups..are obviously better than the tinned soups.
1992 Independent 19 Dec. (Mag.) 16/3 It was Shakers who developed the idea of packet seeds.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive uses, in the sense ‘carrying a packet or packets’.† packet-bark n. Obsolete
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessel for transporting people or goods > [noun] > packet or mailboat
post-boat1582
post-bark1599
post1600
post packet1634
packet-boat1642
packeta1670
post office packet1780
packet-ship1782
packet-bark1806
packet steamer1842
sailing-packet1842
mailboat1895
multipacket1965
1806 W. L. Bowles Banwell Hill i. 320 The gay packet-bark, to Erin bound.
1874 Scribner's Monthly Dec. 210 Happening, about the time I was thinking of another cruise, to come across Captain Hardy, of the packet bark ‘Jehu’.
packet-horse n. now historical
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by purpose used for > [noun] > pack-horse > with particular type of loads
besage-horse1526
poke-horse1669
packet-horse1689
1689 London Gaz. No. 2485/4 Three Persons on Horseback set upon the Chester Mail..taking the Pacquet-Horse and Pacquet into an adjacent Wood.
1865 Daily News 12 Aug. 3/5 He saw..a horse with gears like the packet horse standing at the next gate.
2006 J. Murphy Desperate Journey xiii. 150 A packet horse had collapsed and died on the towpath directly in front of them.
packet mail n. now historical
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > receptacle or container > bag > [noun] > for letters or papers
packet mail1663
1663 B. Gerbier Counsel to Builders 8 Postillions, hasten with the Packet-Maile to the Post Office.
1843 Jamaica Despatch 18 May in Times 19 June 5/2 The packet mail forwarded by the steamer which sails this morning conveys to our friends in Great Britain [etc.].
1939 Stamps 19 Aug. 234/2 (caption) Single rate for prepaid British packet mail from United Kingdom.
1997 J. McCusker Ess. Econ. Hist. Atlantic World viii. 184 The letter was charged the postal rate for packet mail and was so marked.
packet steamer n. now historical
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessel for transporting people or goods > [noun] > packet or mailboat
post-boat1582
post-bark1599
post1600
post packet1634
packet-boat1642
packeta1670
post office packet1780
packet-ship1782
packet-bark1806
packet steamer1842
sailing-packet1842
mailboat1895
multipacket1965
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > mechanically propelled vessels > [noun] > propelled by steam engine > cargo-steamer
packet steamer1842
puffer1849
smoke-jack1892
1842 Times 17 Oct. 4/6 The Minister of France delayed the departure of the packet steamer for 24 hours.
1859 A. Van Buren Jottings Sojourn in South 34 At noon I took the trig, excellent little ‘Packet Steamer, Home,’ that runs between Vicksburgh and Yazoo City.
1930 William & Mary Coll. Q. Hist. Mag. 10 281 He died on board the Clarence, packet-steamer from London to Granton, on May 5th, 1845.
2002 Chattanooga (Tennessee) Times (Nexis) 27 Nov. 7 Visitors would enter the park through a replica cotton ex-change, then cross a reconstructed packet steamer bridging a lock in the historic Brunswick-Altamaha Canal.
packet vessel n.
ΚΠ
1845 Amer. Whig Rev. June 610 At length the post-office-packet-vessel for Corsica was seen advancing towards them.
1850 C. Dickens David Copperfield lviii. 581 I stood on the deck of the packet vessel that brought me home.
1998 Boston Globe (Nexis) 20 Sept. n5 In 1946..N.Y. Captain Henrique Mendes..raised it [sc. the Morrissey] and put it to work as a packet vessel plying between the Cape Verde archipelago and America.
b. Objective.
packet carrier n.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > correspondence > postal services > person or vehicle that carries letters or mail > [noun] > person
letter bearera1400
breveterc1440
post1507
letter carrier1552
post boy1588
ordinary1592
packet carrier1606
postie1611
woman-posta1616
postwoman1683
letterman1707
postman1758
packeteer1784
letter boy1794
carrier1798
delivery officer1839
post-girl1850
mailman1881
packeter1893
postlady1975
1606 T. Dekker Newes from Hell sig. E2v The Packet-caryer (that all this while wayted on the other side,) cride A boate, a boat.
1701 T. D'Urfey Bath v. i. 47 My industrious Packet Carrier, dear diligent Butler.
1939 Beaver 25/1 He was the famous ‘packet carrier’ from Fort Garry to Norway House.
C2. † packet-day n. Obsolete a day on which a packet-boat leaves from a port.
ΚΠ
1851 Internat. Mag. 1 Mar. 539/1 What have you been doing to yourself? Sprained your finger by working too hard the night before last packet day?
1855 J. Capper in Househ. Words 6 Jan. 502/1 A great many street musicians get their bread by playing before the Southampton hotels on packet days.
packet letter n. now historical a letter sent as part of the packet of State letters from one country to another (see sense A. 1a).
ΚΠ
1616 R. Cocks Diary (1883) I. 113 I sealed up my packet letters for England.
1847 Jrnls. & Proc. House of Assembly Nova Scotia App. 54. 235 The share of expense incurred upon Packet Letters and Newspapers, and the collection of United States Postage.
1968 T. Foster Postal Hist. Jamaica, 1662–1860 i. 51 Incoming packet letters from the British Isles would naturally be charged in sterling but settled in local currency.
2007 S.-R. Laakso Across Oceans v. 106 Three of the five merchantship letters, 25 of the 31 packet letters, and 32 of the 38 steamship letters arrived via Liverpool.
packet-note n. a size of writing paper measuring 229mm by 280mm (9 inches by 11 inches).
ΚΠ
1890 Cent. Dict. Packet-note.
2000 Econ. News (Nexis) 10 May 440 000 copy-books and also 10 tons of packet-notes..were sent to Chechnya.
packet radio n. a method of broadcasting that makes use of radio signals carrying packets of data.
ΚΠ
1976 Aviation Week (Nexis) 27 Sept. 63 Russell terms the tactical packet radio concept a ‘form of spread-spectrum in which the members of the network transmit on the same frequency’.
1993 R. Rucker et al. Mondo 2000 (U.K. ed.) 243/1 The most revolutionary technological development in the last several years is packet radio, which offers the promise of efficient long-distance communication with no privately owned medium.
packet rat n. derogatory (now historical) a sailor, spec. one who specialized in crossing the Atlantic.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > one who travels by water or sea > sailor > types of sailor > [noun] > sailor on other types of craft
brigantiner1555
gondolier1603
collier1716
Greenlandman?1785
junkman1795
surfman1816
Whitehaller1824
gig1833
yawler1833
coracler1834
keel-boatman1839
square-rigger1855
surf boatman1856
skiffman1868
flatman1883
yawlsman1885
packet rat1887
hookerman1894
scooterist1919
launchman1924
sampan-wallah1932
tanker man1932
hydrocyclist-
1887 G. Davis Recoll. Sea-Wanderer's Life 90 Their brother tars..disclaimed all kinship with ‘packet rats’.
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.
2001 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 7 July 18 The ‘packet rats’, the crews of the fast mail ships who were some of the toughest seamen in the world.
packet sniffer n. Computing a sniffer program which allows the contents of packets travelling across a network to be observed (see sniffer n.).
ΚΠ
1989 TCP Layer Fails to ACK Occasionally in comp.sys.next (Usenet newsgroup) 31 Mar. We have used an Ethernet packet sniffer to trace the problem to a missing NeXT ACK.
1998 PC Week (Nexis) 20 Apr. 89 This security effort proved useless when we discovered that traffic between our remote Web browser clients and some of the management sessions were in readable text and visible to any packet sniffer.
packet sniffing n. Computing the action of (using) a packet sniffer program.
ΚΠ
1991 Re: Apple & FCC Petition (Press Release) in comp.sys.mac.misc (Usenet newsgroup) 6 Feb. Those wanting to capture your data can just monitor the EM from your keyboard and such—seems easier than packet sniffing.]
1992 LAN: Local Area Network Mag. (Nexis) Jan. 45/1 When multiple Ethernet cards are present, packet sniffing can run on one card, while the other card continues to execute the network operating system.
2001 F. Popcorn & A. Hanft Dict. Future 342 Packet-sniffing could mean that any and all of your emails are vulnerable; it's one of the many aspects of the Internet that's got privacy watchdogs sniffing around themselves.
packet-switched adj. Computing and Telecommunications transmitted using packet-switching.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > [adjective] > transmitting > type of transmission
packet-switched1972
1972 Proc. Inst. Electr. Engineers 119 1677 (heading) Proposed organisation for packet-switched data-communication network.
2001 Working from Home Mar. 40/2 It uses a packet-switched protocol which permits high-quality and, more importantly, high-security voice and data transmissions at speeds up to 1Mb/s.
packet-switching n. Computing and Telecommunications a mode of data transmission in which a message is broken into a number of parts or packets (see sense A. 3b) which are sent independently, over whatever route is optimum for each packet, and reassembled at the destination.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > [noun] > transmission > types of
message switching1961
packet-switching1971
1971 Bell Jrnl. Econ. & Managem. Sci. 2 663 Although the unit of message is smaller, the packet-switching computer can and does perform many of the same functions as a message-switching computer.
2000 Sci. Amer. Oct. 53/2 Instead of sending data on dedicated circuits, a packet-switching network divides the information into packets and transmits them on any of the network's available channels.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2005; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
packetv.
/ˈpakɪt/, U.S. /ˈpækət/ 1. transitive. To make up into, put into, or wrap up in, a packet. Also with up.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > manufacturing processes > perform general or industrial manufacturing processes [verb (transitive)] > pack
pack1423
packet1621
package1954
the world > space > relative position > arrangement or fact of being arranged > state of being gathered together > gather together [verb (transitive)] > make into a pack or parcel
hamperc1400
packc1400
to pack up1530
mail1570
emball1588
fardel1594
packet1621
farla1640
to make up1709
embale1727
bale1762
parcel1775
empacket1825
make1849
package1917
1621 T. Lodge tr. Summary of Du Bartas To Rdr. *iv b So many wonders as I behold enstated and packeted vp in a paucity of Verses.
a1745 J. 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 Strawberry.
1902 Bot. Gaz. 33 239 The specimens being ample and well packeted.
1987 R. Mistry Tales from Firozsha Baag 84 That square of fine white cloth which was tied and knotted to sit like a cap on her head, snugly packeting the bun.
2001 ASAP 1 Sept. 1381 Errors in packeting seed or labeling seed packets prior to planting or seed storage.
a. transitive. To send by packet-boat. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > transportation by water > transport by water [verb (transitive)] > send by ship > by specific type of ship
packet1638
1638 J. Ford Fancies i. 2 The young Lord of Telamon her husband, Was packetted to France, to study courtship.
1765 P. Francis tr. Horace Epist. (ed. 7) IV. i. xx. 149 But soon as vulgar Hands thy Beauty soil, The Moth shall batten on the silent Spoil, To Afric sent, or packeted to Spain.
b. intransitive. To ply with a packet-boat. Obsolete. rare.
ΚΠ
1806 N. Webster Compend. Dict. Eng. Lang. Packet, to ply with a packet.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.adj.?a1450
v.1621