Mote

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Mote, v. 

 See 1st Mot.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

Mote, n. [See Moot, a meeting.].

•  A meeting of persons for discussion; as, a wardmote in the city of London.  [1913 Webster]
•  A body of persons who meet for discussion, esp. about the management of affairs; as, a folkmote.  [1913 Webster]
•  A place of meeting for discussion.  [1913 Webster]

Mote bell, the bell rung to summon to a mote. [Obs.]

Mote, n. 

 The flourish sounded on a horn by a huntsman. See Mot, n., 3, and Mort.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

Mote, n. [OE. mot, AS. mot.].

 A small particle, as of floating dust; anything proverbially small; a speck.  [1913 Webster]
"The little motes in the sun do ever stir, though there be no wind."  [1913 Webster]
"We are motes in the midst of generations."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Mote, n. a speck of dust.

Etymology

OE mot, corresp. to Du. mot dust, sawdust, of unkn. orig.

THESAURUS

Mote

ace, acropolis, air, atom, bastion, beachhead, bit, black sheep, blemish, blockhouse, bridgehead, bubble, bunker, castle, chaff, chip, citadel, cobweb, cork, crumb, dab, dole, donjon, dot, down, dram, dribble, driblet, drop, droplet, dust, dwarf, ether, fairy, farthing, fasthold, fastness, feather, fleck, flue, fluff, flyspeck, foam, foreign body, foreign intruder, fort, fortress, fragment, froth, fuzz, garrison, garrison house, gnat, gobbet, gossamer, grain, granule, groat, hair, handful, hold, impurity, intruder, iota, jot, keep, little, little bit, martello, martello tower, microbe, microorganism, midge, minim, minimum, minutia, minutiae, misfit, mite, modicum, molecule, monkey wrench, motte, nutshell, oddball, ounce, particle, pebble, peel, peel tower, pillbox, pinch, pinhead, pinpoint, pittance, point, post, rath, safehold, scrap, scruple, sliver, smidgen, smitch, snip, snippet, speck, splinter, sponge, spoonful, spot, spume, stone, straw, strong point, stronghold, thimbleful, thistledown, tiny bit, tittle, tower, tower of strength, trifling amount, trivia, vanishing point, ward, weed, whit

ROGET THESAURUS

Mote

Smallness

N smallness, littleness, tenuity, paucity, fewness, meanness, insignificance (unimportance), mediocrity, moderation, small quantity, modicum, trace, hint, minimum, vanishing point, material point, atom, particle, molecule, corpuscle, point, speck, dot, mote, jot, iota, ace, minutiae, details, look, thought, idea, soupcon, dab, dight, whit, tittle, shade, shadow, spark, scintilla, gleam, touch, cast, grain, scruple, granule, globule, minim, sup, sip, sop, spice, drop, droplet, sprinkling, dash, morceau, screed, smack, tinge, tincture, inch, patch, scantling, tatter, cantlet, flitter, gobbet, mite, bit, morsel, crumb, seed, fritter, shive, snip, snippet, snick, snack, snatch, slip, scrag, chip, chipping, shiver, sliver, driblet, clipping, paring, shaving, hair, nutshell, thimbleful, spoonful, handful, capful, mouthful, fragment, fraction, drop in the ocean, animalcule, trifle, mere nothing, next to nothing, hardly anything, just enough to swear by, the shadow of a shade, finiteness, finite quantity, small, little, diminutive, minute, fine, inconsiderable, paltry, faint, slender, light, slight, scanty, scant, limited, meager, sparing, few, low, so-so, middling, tolerable, no great shakes, below par, under par, below the mark, at a low ebb, halfway, moderate, modest, tender, subtle, inappreciable, evanescent, infinitesimal, homeopathic, very small, atomic, corpuscular, microscopic, molecular, subatomic, mere, simple, sheer, stark, bare, near run, dull, petty, shallow, stolid, ungifted, unintelligent, to a small extent, on a small scale, a little bit, a wee bit, slightly, imperceptibly, miserably, wretchedly, insufficiently, imperfectly, faintly, passably, pretty well, well enough, partially, in part, in a certain degree, to a certain degree, to a certain extent, comparatively, some, rather in some degree, in some measure, something, somewhat, simply, only, purely, merely, at least, at the least, at most, at the most, ever so little, as little as may be, tant soit peu, in ever so small a degree, thus far, pro tanto, within bounds, in a manner, after a fashion, so to speak, almost, nearly, well-nigh, short of, not quite, all but, near upon, close upon, peu s'en faut, near the mark, within an ace of, within an inch of, on the brink of, scarcely, hardly, barely, only just, no more than, about, thereabouts, somewhere about, nearly, say, be the same, be little more or less, no ways, no way, no wise, not at all, not in the least, not a bit, not a bit of it, not a whit, not a jot, not a shadow, in no wise, in no respect, by no means, by no manner of means, on no account, at no hand, dare pondus idonea fumo, magno conatu magnas nugas, small sands the mountain, moments make the year.

Levity

N levity, lightness, imponderability, buoyancy, volatility, feather, dust, mote, down, thistle, down, flue, cobweb, gossamer, straw, cork, bubble, balloon, float, buoy, ether, air, leaven, ferment, barm, yeast, lighter-than-air balloon, helium balloon, hydrogen balloon, hot air balloon, convection, thermal draft, thermal, light, subtile, airy, imponderous, imponderable, astatic, weightless, ethereal, sublimated, gossamery, suberose, suberous, uncompressed, volatile, buoyant, floating, portable, light as a feather, light as a thistle, light as air, lighter than air, rise like a balloon, float like a balloon.