use xargs with bash function

xargs_with_function.sh

#!/bin/bash

parse_and_echo() {
  echo "\$1:$1 \$2:$2 \$3:$3 \$4:$4"
  echo newline
}

export -f parse_and_echo

# `_' is placeholder for $0
cat ./xargs_with_function.txt | xargs -n 4 bash -c 'parse_and_echo $@' _

xargs_with_function.txt

11 12 13 14
21 22 23 24
31 32 33 34
41 42 43 44