maniple

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: man=i=ple

CIDE DICTIONARY

maniple, n. [L. manipulus, maniplus, a handful, a certain number of soldiers; manus hand + root of plere to fill, plenus full: cf. F. maniple. See Manual, and Full, a.].

•  A handful.  B. Jonson.  [1913 Webster]
•  A division of the Roman army numbering sixty men exclusive of officers; any small body of soldiers; a company.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]
•  Originally, a napkin; later, an ornamental band or scarf worn upon the left arm as a part of the vestments of a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. It is sometimes worn in the English Church service.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

maniple, n.
1 Rom.Hist. a subdivision of a legion, containing 120 or 60 men.
2 a Eucharistic vestment consisting of a strip hanging from the left arm.

Etymology

OF maniple or L manipulus handful, troop f. manus hand

ROGET THESAURUS

maniple

Fewness

N fewness, paucity, small number, small quantity, rarity, infrequency, handful, maniple, minority, exiguity, reduction, weeding, elimination, sarculation, decimation, eradication, few, scant, scanty, thin, rare, scattered, thinly scattered, spotty, few and far between, exiguous, infrequent, rari nantes, hardly any, scarcely any, to be counted on one's fingers, reduced, unrepeated, rarely, here and there.