Small

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Adverb

CIDE DICTIONARY

Small, a. [OE. small, AS. smæl; akin to D. smal narrow, OS. & OHG. smal small, G. schmal narrow, Dan. & Sw. smal, Goth. smals small, Icel. smali smal cattle, sheep, or goats; cf. Gr. mh^lon a sheep or goat.].

•  Having little size, compared with other things of the same kind; little in quantity or degree; diminutive; not large or extended in dimension; not great; not much; inconsiderable; as, a small man; a small river.  [1913 Webster]

  "To compare
  Great things with small."  [1913 Webster]
•  Being of slight consequence; feeble in influence or importance; unimportant; trivial; insignificant; as, a small fault; a small business.  [1913 Webster]
•  Envincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; -- sometimes, in reproach, paltry; mean.  [1913 Webster]

  "A true delineation of the smallest man is capable of interesting the greatest man."  [1913 Webster]
•  Not prolonged in duration; not extended in time; short; as, after a small space.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  Weak; slender; fine; gentle; soft; not loud.  1 Kings xix. 12.  [1913 Webster]

Great and small,of all ranks or degrees; -- used especially of persons. “His quests, great and small.” Chaucer. -- Small arms, muskets, rifles, pistols, etc., in distinction from cannon. -- Small beer. See under Beer. -- Small coal. (a) Little coals of wood formerly used to light fires. Gay. (b) Coal about the size of a hazelnut, separated from the coarser parts by screening. -- Small craft (Naut.), a vessel, or vessels in general, of a small size. -- Small fruits. See under Fruit. -- Small hand, a certain size of paper. See under Paper. -- Small hours. See under Hour. -- Small letter. (Print.), a lower-case letter. See Lower-case, and Capital letter, under Capital, a. -- Small piece, a Scotch coin worth about 2 -- Small register. See the Note under 1st Register, 7. -- Small stuff (Naut.), spun yarn, marline, and the smallest kinds of rope. R. H. Dana, Jr. -- Small talk, light or trifling conversation; chitchat. -- Small wares (Com.), various small textile articles, as tapes, braid, tringe, and the like. M‘Culloch.

Small, adv. 

•  In or to small extent, quantity, or degree; little; slightly.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not loudly; faintly; timidly.  [1913 Webster]

  "You may speak as small as you will."  [1913 Webster]

Small, n. 

•  The small or slender part of a thing; as, the small of the leg or of the back.  [1913 Webster]
•  Smallclothes.  Hood. Dickens.  [1913 Webster]
•  Same as Little go. See under Little, a.  [1913 Webster]

Small, v. t. 

 To make little or less.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Small, adj., n., & adv.
--adj.
1 not large or big.
2 slender; thin.
3 not great in importance, amount, number, strength, or power.
4 not much; trifling (a small token; paid small attention).
5 insignificant; unimportant (a small matter; from small beginnings).
6 consisting of small particles (small gravel; small shot).
7 doing something on a small scale (a small farmer).
8 socially undistinguished; poor or humble.
9 petty; mean; ungenerous; paltry (a small spiteful nature).
10 young; not fully grown or developed (a small child).
--n.
1 the slenderest part of something (esp. small of the back).
2 (in pl.) Brit. colloq. small items of laundry, esp. underwear.
--adv. into small pieces (chop it small).

Idiom

feel (or look) small be humiliated; appear mean or humiliated. in a small way unambitiously; on a small scale. no small considerable; a good deal of (no small excitement about it). small arms portable firearms, esp. rifles, pistols, light machine-guns, sub-machine-guns, etc. small beer
1 a trifling matter; something unimportant.
2 weak beer. small-bore (of a firearm) with a narrow bore, in international and Olympic shooting usu. .22 inch calibre (5.6 millimetre bore). small capital a capital letter which is of the same dimensions as the lower-case letters in the same typeface minus ascenders and descenders, as THIS.
small change
1 money in the form of coins as opposed to notes.
2 trivial remarks. small circle see CIRCLE. small claims court Brit. a local tribunal in which claims for small amounts can be heard and decided quickly and cheaply without legal representation. small craft a general term for small boats and fishing vessels.
small fry
1 young children or the young of various species.
2 small or insignificant things or people. small hours the early hours of the morning after midnight. small intestine see INTESTINE. small letter (in printed material) a lower-case letter. small mercy a minor concession, benefit, etc. (be grateful for small mercies). small potatoes an insignificant person or thing.
small print
1 printed matter in small type.
2 inconspicuous and usu. unfavourable limitations etc. in a contract. small profits and quick returns the policy of a cheap shop etc. relying on large trade. small-scale made or occurring in small amounts or to a lesser degree. small slam see SLAM(2). small-sword a light tapering thrusting-sword, esp. hist. for duelling. small talk light social conversation. small-time colloq. unimportant or petty. small-timer colloq. a small-time operator; an insignificant person. small-town relating to or characteristic of a small town; unsophisticated; provincial. small wonder not very surprising.

Derivative

smallish adj. smallness n.

Etymology

OE sm{aelig}l f. Gmc

THESAURUS

Small

Lenten, Lilliputian, Spartan, abject, abominable, abstemious, airy, arrant, ascetic, atrocious, attenuate, attenuated, austere, authoritarian, baby, back-burner, bantam, base, beggarly, bigot, bigoted, borne, boyish, cheap, cheesy, close, closed, commonplace, constricted, contemptible, cramped, creedbound, crummy, cursory, deaf, deaf to reason, debased, deficient, degraded, delicate, depraved, depthless, despicable, diaphanous, diluted, diminished, diminutive, dinky, dirty, disgusting, dispensable, dwarfed, dwarfish, elfin, ethereal, everyday, execrable, exiguous, fanatical, few, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, flagrant, flat, flimsy, footling, foul, frail, frugal, fulsome, gauzy, girlish, gossamer, gracile, grave, gross, grudging, half-pint, heinous, hidebound, homely, humble, humble-looking, humble-visaged, humblest, illiberal, immaterial, immature, imperfect, impoverished, in a nutshell, in miniature, in the small, inadequate, inappreciable, incompetent, inconsequential, inconsiderable, inessential, inferior, inglorious, innocuous, insignificant, insubstantial, insufficient, insular, irrelevant, jejune, knee-high, lacy, lean, least, lesser, light, limited, little, little-minded, low, low-down, lowest, lowliest, lowly, lumpen, maladroit, mangy, matter-of-fact, meager, mean, mean-minded, mean-spirited, measly, mediocre, midget, mingy, mini, miniature, minor, minuscule, minute, miserable, miserly, misty, modest, monkey, monstrous, mundane, narrow, narrow-hearted, narrow-minded, narrow-souled, narrow-spirited, nearsighted, nefarious, negligible, niggardly, no great shakes, nonessential, not comparable, not in it, not vital, nugatory, obnoxious, odious, one-horse, out of it, paltry, papery, parochial, parsimonious, peewee, petit, petite, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddling, pindling, pint-sized, plain, pocket-sized, poky, poor, provincial, puny, purblind, rank, rare, rarefied, reduced, reptilian, scabby, scant, scanty, scrawny, scrimp, scrimpy, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, secondary, selfish, shabby, shallow, shoddy, short, shortsighted, simple, skimp, skimpy, skin-deep, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slightly, slim, slimmish, slinky, small-minded, small-scale, smallish, smally, spare, sparing, squalid, starvation, stingy, stinted, stinting, straitened, straitlaced, stuffy, stunted, subsistence, subtle, superficial, svelte, sylphlike, teachable, technical, teeny, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinnish, threadlike, tight, tight-fisted, tiny, trifling, trivial, two-by-four, two-dimensional, uncatholic, uncharitable, unchivalrous, undersized, undistinguished, unessential, ungenerous, unimaginative, unimportant, unimpressive, uninspired, unliberal, unmentionable, unnoteworthy, unnourishing, unnutritious, unoriginal, unpretentious, unprofound, unsatisfactory, unskillful, vague, vile, wasp-waisted, watered, watered-down, watery, weak, wee, willowy, wiredrawn, wispy, wretched, young

ROGET THESAURUS

Small

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.

Inferiority

N inferiority, minority, subordinacy, shortcoming, deficiency, minimum, smallness, imperfection, lower quality, lower worth, commonalty, inferior, smaller, small, minor, less, lesser, deficient, minus, lower, subordinate, secondary, secondrate, sub, subaltern, thrown into the shade, weighed in the balance and found wanting, not fit to hold a candle to, can't hold a candle to, least, smallest &c (little) (small), lowest, diminished, reduced, unimportant, less, under the mark, below the mark, below par, at the bottom of the scale, at a low ebb, at a disadvantage, short of, under.

Littleness

N littleness, smallness, exiguity, inextension, parvitude, parvity, duodecimo, Elzevir edition, epitome, microcosm, rudiment, vanishing point, thinness, dwarf, pygmy, pigmy, Liliputian, chit, pigwidgeon, urchin, elf, atomy, dandiprat, doll, puppet, Tom Thumb, Hop-o'-my-thumb, manikin, mannikin, homunculus, dapperling, cock-sparrow, animalcule, monad, mite, insect, emmet, fly, midge, gnat, shrimp, minnow, worm, maggot, entozoon, bacteria, infusoria, microzoa, phytozoaria, microbe, grub, tit, tomtit, runt, mouse, small fry, millet seed, mustard seed, barleycorn, pebble, grain of sand, molehill, button, bubble, point, atom, fragment, powder, point of a pin, mathematical point, minutiae, micrometer, vernier, scale, microphotography, photomicrography, micrography, photomicrograph, microphotograph, microscopy, microscope (optical instruments), little, small, minute, diminutive, microscopic, microzoal, inconsiderable, exiguous, puny, tiny, wee, petty, minikin, miniature, pygmy, pigmy, elfin, undersized, dwarf, dwarfed, dwarfish, spare, stunted, limited, cramp, cramped, pollard, Liliputian, dapper, pocket, portative, portable, duodecimo, dumpy, squat, short, impalpable, intangible, evanescent, imperceptible, invisible, inappreciable, insignificant, inconsiderable, trivial, infinitesimal, homoeopathic, atomic, subatomic, corpuscular, molecular, rudimentary, rudimental, embryonic, vestigial, weazen, scant, scraggy, scrubby, thin, granular, shrunk, brevipennate, in a small compass, in a nutshell, on a small scale, minutely, microscopically.