little

This is a little table.

"You are a little, little man," she proclaimed, staring obviously below my waist as she pronounced the second "little." It was almost disappointing. I'd heard that one before, but it still left a new scar each time.

2017, David Russell, Winston Patrick Mystery 2-Book Bundle, page 70:

Small and underdeveloped, particularly (of a male) in the genitals.

It’s of little importance.

Urania speaks with darken’d brow:
‘Thou pratest here where thou art least;
This faith has many a purer priest,
And many an abler voice than thou: […]’

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXXVII, page 57:

Listen up, you little shit.

Insignificant, trivial.
(offensive) Used to belittle a person.

Insignificant, trivial.
Used to belittle a person.

Did he tell you any embarrassing stories about when she was little?

That’s the biggest little boy I’ve ever seen.

This is my little sister.

If you want to find Little France, take any turning on the north side of Leicester square, and wander in a zigzag fashion Oxford Streetwards. The Little is rather smokier and more squalid than the Great France upon the other side of the Manche.

1871 October 18, The One-eyed Philosopher [pseudonym], "Street Corners", in Judy: or the London serio-comic journal, volume 9, page 255 http://books.google.com/books?id=_B4oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA255

In the forties, hurdy-gurdy men could still be heard in all those East Coast cities with strong Italian neighbourhoods: New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston. A visit to Baltimore’s Little Italy at that time was like a trip to Italy itself.

2004, Barry Miles, Zappa: A Biography, edition, published 2005, →ISBN, page 5:

“The theatre was bought by the Croatian immigrants as so many immigrants came here in the ’30s and mostly for mining jobs, but in Schumacher itself it was called little Zagreb, and Zagreb is the capital city of Croatia. There were so many of them that they wanted to have their own little community, so they bought the theatre and they renovated it at that time, remodelled it and made it into a Croatian Hall,” she explained.

2020, Richa Bhosale, “Croatian Hall in need of repairs to remain open”, in Timmins Daily Press:

(often capitalized) Used with the name of a place, especially of a country or its capital, to denote a neighborhood whose residents or storekeepers are from that place.

He is the embodiment of Fleet Street bullying, using his newspaper to peddle his Little-England, curtain-twitching Alan Partridgesque view of the world, which manages to combine sanctimonious, pompous moralising and prurient, voyeuristic, judgmental obsession

2012, Steve Coogan, Comedian Steve Coogan on Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre:

(derogatory) To imply that the inhabitants of the place have an insular attitude and are hostile to those they perceive as foreign.

little herd

Little Steel
smaller steel companies, as contrasted with Big Steel

Little Science
science performed by individuals or small teams, as contrasted with Big Science

(of an industry or other field, or institution(s) therein, often capitalized) Operating on a small scale.

I feel better after my little sleep.

The long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise, / Because their natures are little.

1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 20:

Showing unmistakably what a little person he really was, in June 1949 he wrote his newly married daughter with nauseating disregard for the truth

2001, Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis, The Unknown Callas: the Greek Years, page 547:

Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow, shallow, contracted; mean, illiberal, ungenerous.

en-adj

little (comparative less or lesser or littler, superlative least or littlest)

less (comparative)
lesser (comparative)
littler (comparative)
least (superlative)
littlest (superlative)

a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds

a little from column A and a little from column B

→ Jamaican Creole: likl, likkle

From Middle English litel, from Old English lyttel, lȳtel, from Proto-West Germanic *lūtil, from Proto-Germanic *lūtilaz (“tending to stoop, crouched, little”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewd- (“to bend, bent, small”), equivalent to lout + -le. Cognate with Dutch luttel, regional German lütt and lützel, Saterland Frisian litje, West Frisian lyts, Low German lütt, lüttje. Related also to Old English lūtan (“to bow, bend low”); and perhaps to Old English lytiġ (“deceitful”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍄𐍃 (liuts, “deceitful”); compare also Icelandic lítill (“little”), Faroese lítil, Swedish liten, Danish liden, lille, Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (leitils), which appear to have a different root vowel. More at lout.


little

This is a little known fact.

She spoke little and listened less.

We slept very little last night.

Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to “Chat of the Social World,” gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl’s intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy—[…]—distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its flavor.

1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 373, column 2:

But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window[…], and a ‘bead’ could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

en-adv

little (comparative less or lesser, superlative least)

less (comparative)
lesser (comparative)
least (superlative)


little

There is (very) little water left.

We had very little to do.

Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an “explosion.”

2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:

Not much, only a little: only a small amount (of).

head

little (comparative less, superlative least)


little

Little is known about his early life.


little

Can I try a little of that sauce?

Little did he do to make me comfortable.

If you want some cake, there’s a little in the refrigerator.

Many littles make a mickle. (Scottish proverb)

(chiefly uncountable or in the singular) A small amount.

(countable, informal) A child, particularly an infant.

He was there the night of Cristoph's party. All the littles were assigned to their bigs. Ian and Christoph had rushed the same fraternity. When they became upperclassmen, they both ended up on the board.

2018, Kelly Ann Gonzales, Through an Opaque Window:

She added that the relationship between bigs and littles is "what each pair makes of it," and that a lot of the pairs often get dinner together and become close friends.

2019 April 1, Audrey Steinkamp, “Sororities pair new members with "bigs"”, in Yale Daily News:

Some traditions of the chapter include lineages with bigs and littles, receiving of paddles from a big, and a national stroll, Wolsch-Gallia said.

2022 September 27, Shreya Varrier, “Gamma Rho Lambda provides LGBTQIA+ community in greek life”, in Iowa State Daily:

An adult in a child-like role, or in the more junior of two paired roles.

(countable, university slang) A newly initiated member of a sorority or fraternity, who is mentored by a big.

(countable, BDSM, ABDL) The participant in ageplay who acts out the younger role.

People with [dissociative identity] disorder frequently have a younger personality among their distinctive personalities. However, it’s believed that the "little" may not be a separate personality. Instead, it may be a regressed version of the original personality.

2019 August 30, Kimberly Holland, Healthline:

(countable) One who has mentally age regressed to a childlike state.

I go up for my Little tomorrow.

Short for little go (“type of examination”).

en-noun

little (countable and uncountable, plural littles)