> as lemmas

?1536 R. Taverner tr. Erasmus Ryght Frutefull Epyst. Prayse of Matrymony sig. C.iii He is but a very lytle of, from the prayse of virgynite, whyche kepeth purely the law of wedlocke, and whyche hath a wyfe to the entent to beget chylderne, and nat to satysfy hys wanton luste.

1547 C. Langton Very Brefe Treat. Phisick ii. vi, sig. H.iv^v For summe tyme, whan it [sc. the nose] hathe bled but a verye litell, it must be staied incontinent.

1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια x. xxi. 770 If they both mooue, either they keepe the head steddy.., or else do draw it backward a very little.

a1672 P. Skippon in F. Willughby Bk. of Games (2003) 108 When it meetes with any opposition of the ground or wall it lyes almost still & rebounds but a very little.

1709 Tatler No. 75. ⁋9 Jenny's only Imperfection is an Admiration of her Parts, which inclines her to be a little, but a very little, sluttish.

1743 R. Pococke Descr. East I. l. 8 The pillar is well preserved, except that it has scaled away a very little to the south.

1771 T. Smollett To Dr. Lewis in Humphry Clinker III. 39 A very little above its source..stands the house of Cameron.

1815 M. Elphinstone Acct. Kingdom Caubul Introd. 79 A fillet, formed by stones projecting a very little from the wall.

1824 M. R. Mitford Our Village I. 52 A very little inclining to the clumsy.

1865 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend II. iii. ii. 17 The steamer's lights moved spectrally a very little.

1876 Methodist Visitor 5 139 (heading) Only a very little too late!

1915 C. Johnson Highways & Byways New Eng. (1916) 195 I felt his teeth graze my leg. I gorry! if he'd been a very little nigher he'd have got me!

1947 J. B. Cabell Let me Lie Prol. vii. 16 They are fighting..at a great number of other places with the pronunciation of which all ‘news commentators’ are fighting but a very little less bravely.

1991 R. Rendell Kissing Gunner's Daughter (1992) xii. 147 Joyce Virson preened herself a very little.

1548 R. Crowley Confut. Mishapen Aunswer sig. A.viii The best counsayle that I can geue you now, is to make haste and recante. For so shall you yet saue some parte of your honestie though it be but a verie little.

1558 W. Ward tr. G. Ruscelli Secretes Alexis of Piemount i. f. 32 The thirtenth is, that it killeth all wormes in mannes bodie, if a man rubbe his nosestrelles, or drinke a verie litle of it.

1566 T. Heskyns Parl. Chryste ii. lxii. f. ccxvii^v Forsomoch as I haue passed so neare to our time, I will with thy pacience (gentle reader) go on, vntil I bring the within a verie litle of this our time.

1660 J. Evelyn Let. 17 Feb. in Diary & Corr. (1852) (modernized text) III. 129 [They] might be made to have their circles as orderly as those which we find in Brasile, Ebene, &c., which, within a very little, concentre by reason of the uniform course of the Sun about them.

1716 Free-holder 21 May A very venerable Matron, with a Nose and Chin, that were within a very little of touching one another.

1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 157 My Ink..had been gone..all but a very little, which I eek'd out with Water.

1728 E. Smith Compl. Housewife (ed. 2) 12 Put it into the Stew-pan again with a very little of the Liquor it was boiled in.

1790 W. Nicholson tr. A.-F. de Fourcroy Elements Nat. Hist. & Chem. (new ed.) II. xix. 489 A very little of that salt is sufficient to dissolve again the whole of the copper separated from the sulphuric acid.

1857 Victoria (Austral.) Parl. Papers III. No. 48. 41 Those men live upon a very little; they go begging about.

1882 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 124 253 A very little of a resinous-looking mineral could be seen.

1939 D. Thomas Let. 14 Sept. (1987) 411 I personally know nothing of any foreign language except a very little about the sanitary-towel of the gardener's wife & a few Welsh dirty words.

1991 O. Clarke Webster's Wine Guide 1992 64/2 A very little, up to five per cent, of this headily perfumed grape often goes into the Sauternes blend.