Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PACK'ET, n. [Fr. paquet; Sp. and Port. paquete; from pack.]

1. A small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel; as, a packet of letters. – Bacon.
2. A dispatch-vessel; a ship or other vessel employed by government to convey letters from country to country or from port to port. [Originally, packet-boat, Sp. paque-bote, Fr. paquebot.]
3. A vessel employed in conveying dispatches and passengers from place to place, or to carry passengers and goods coastwise. – United States.