little
/ˈlɪt(ə)l
/adjective
1Small in size, amount, or degree (often used to convey an appealing diminutiveness or express an affectionate or condescending attitude): the plants will grow into little bushes a little puppy dog a boring little man...
- There's always a little old man sat behind the counter, and no one ever seems to be in there.
- While a little black spot on the sun may seem like a simple act, the transit of Venus is not.
- All he needed to do now was to point his telescope at the sun all day and look for a little black spot.
Synonyms
small, small-scale, compact;
mini, miniature, tiny, minute, minuscule;
toy, baby, pocket, undersized, dwarf, midget, fun-size;
bijou, dainty, cute, sweet, dear;
Scottish wee
informal teeny, teeny-weeny, teensy, teensy-weensy, itsy-bitsy, tiddly, half-pint, dinky
British informal titchy, ickle
North American informal little-bitty, vest-pocket
short, small, slight, thin, petite, diminutive, tiny;
squat, stubby;
elfin, dwarf, dwarfish, midget, pygmy, bantam, homuncular, Lilliputian;
Scottish wee
informal teeny, teeny-weeny, pint-sized, knee high to a grasshopper
1.1(Of a person) young or younger: my little brother when she was little she was always getting into scrapes...
- He had played a big role in my life since I was little so he would always be a part of my life.
- It's funny that my favorite thing when I was little is no longer my favorite thing at all.
- Finding someone close to the perfect person is never as easy as you are led to believe when you're little.
Synonyms
young, younger, junior, small, baby, infant, minor
1.2 [attributive] Denoting something, especially a place, that is the smaller or smallest of those so named or is named after a similar larger one: the village of Little Chesterton...
- It'll also be named after London - Little London - and it'll also go out of business in a hurry.
- Whether you live in the suburbs or in the vital enclaves of a Little India, you are a part of America and American life.
- In 1929 the group broke away and moved into the Little Germany Theatre - then called the Civic.
1.3 [attributive] Used in names of animals and plants that are smaller than related kinds, e.g. little grebe.
1.4 [attributive] Of short distance or duration: stay for a little while we climbed up a little way...
- Some important Taliban buildings are set a little distance away from the civilian population.
- She was a little distance off, digging into her bag.
- The polar continental is usually a dry air mass, having little distance to travel over the sea.
Synonyms
brief, short, short-lived;
fleeting, momentary, transitory, transient, ephemeral, evanescent, infinitesimal;
fast, quick, hasty, cursory;
Scottish wee
1.5 [attributive] Relatively unimportant or trivial (often used ironically): we have a little problem I can’t remember every little detail...
- But it will be nice to be able to sit back and enjoy the show without having to worry about every little detail.
- It looked like a normal house, but there were just so many little incidental details.
- Was it the big plot points that you wanted to reflect in your life or the mundane little details that you were going for?
Synonyms
minor, unimportant, insignificant, trivial, trifling, petty, paltry, inconsequential, negligible, inconsiderable, nugatory, of minor importance, of little/no account
determiner & pronoun
1 (a little) A small amount of: [as determiner]: we got a little help from a training scheme [as pronoun]: you only see a little of what he can do...
- Sprinkle with a little of the leftover spring onions and serve immediately with extra cheese.
- Most of the stuff out there just doesn't pack the same punch that the old tunes do and we want to bring back a little of the old touch.
- Tourists and locals alike last night flocked to the pub to see if they could capture a little of the magic.
Synonyms
some, a small amount of, a bit of, a touch of, a soupçon of, a dash of, a taste of, a dab of, a spot of, a modicum of, a morsel of, a fragment of, a snippet of, a tinge of, a particle of, a jot of, a shade of, a suggestion of, a trace of, a hint of, a suspicion of;
a dribble of, a splash of, a driblet of;
a pinch of, a sprinkling of, a sprinkle of, a grain of, a speck of
informal a smidgen of, a tad of
1.1 [pronoun] A short time or distance: after a little, the rain stopped
Synonyms
a short time, a little while, a bit, an interval, a short spell, a short period;
a minute, a moment, a second, a split second, an instant, a flash
informal a sec, a mo, a jiffy, a jiff
2Used to emphasize how small an amount is: [as determiner]: I have little doubt of their identity there was very little time to be lost [as pronoun]: he ate and drank very little the rouble is worth so little these days...
- However, the use of a variety of instruments does little to emphasize the indivisibility of rights.
- There is little doubt that these cases in particular have led to the numerous threats to her life.
- But he had little doubt about that side of the midfielder's game when he signed him in the summer.
Synonyms
hardly any, not much, slight, small, scant, limited, restricted, modest, little or no, minimal, negligible;
insufficient, inadequate
adverb (less, least)
1 (a little) To a small extent: he reminded me a little of my parents I was always a little afraid of her...
- One Moroccan girl said that she was a little afraid, since the murderer was a Moroccan.
- I must admit, I was still a little afraid of this world that was still new and foreign to me.
- I am a little afraid to ask what it is, but I do know I will not be eating much of this.
Synonyms
slightly, faintly, remotely, vaguely;
moderately, somewhat, a little bit, quite, to some degree, fairly
informal sort of, kind of, kinda, ish
2Only to a small extent; not much or often (used for emphasis): he was little known in this country he had slept little these past weeks...
- Whatever happened in the past, the biblical message is little known in those lands today.
- You need to get into the habit of drinking water little and often - before, during and after training.
- Here, too, he enjoyed little financial success but the publication went on to greater things.
2.1Hardly or not at all: little did he know what wheels he was putting into motion...
- Yet this role is little noticed in the US and often incomprehensible to America's allies.
- Oh wait that's little different to being ruled by a mobster, and brutally murdered and repressed.
- They pointed out how little human nature has changed over the last thousand years.
Synonyms
hardly, barely, scarcely, not much, only slightly, slightly, only just
rarely, seldom, infrequently, hardly ever, hardly, scarcely ever, scarcely, not much
Phrases
in little
little by little
little or nothing
make little of
no little
not a little
quite a little
quite the little ——
Derivatives
littleness
/ noun ...- And when humanitarians allow themselves to be used, he feels, the whole sorry business of humanitarian intervention - already morally unsatisfying in its littleness and lateness - becomes more degenerate still.
- It is that sense of littleness that astrology configures so successfully, just as Delphi with its enigmas configures obscurity, of things in the future, in the past and indeed the present.
- Yes, their littleness, the little publicity that they receive, are a kind of defiance to the epoch in which all that counts is measured in big figures.
Origin
Old English lȳtel, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch luttel, German dialect lützel.
Like small, this is recorded from the earliest times. The proverb a little learning is a dangerous thing quotes a line from Alexander Pope's Essay on Man (1711); nowadays people often substitute ‘knowledge’ for ‘learning’.