little
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlɪ.tl̩/
ipa: [ˈlɪ.ɾɫ̩]
ipa: /ˈlɘ.tl̩/
note: Indic
ipa: /lɪʈl̩/
ipa: [lɪʈ.ɐl]
ipa: [lɪʈ.(ʈ)ɨɭ]
rhymes: -ɪtəl
homophone: Littell
Forms: form: less
form: lesser
form: littler
form: least
form: littlest
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: This is a little table.
text: It’s only a little way now.
glosses: Small in size.
examples: text: "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.
ref: 2017, David Russell, Winston Patrick Mystery 2-Book Bundle, page 70:
glosses: Small in size.
Small and underdeveloped, particularly (of a male) in the genitals.
synonyms: small
under-endowed
examples: text: It’s of little importance.
text: 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: […]’
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXVII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 57:
glosses: Insignificant, trivial.
examples: text: Listen up, you little shit.
glosses: Insignificant, trivial.
Used to belittle a person.
examples: text: Did he tell you any embarrassing stories about when she was little?
text: That’s the biggest little boy I’ve ever seen.
glosses: Very young, of childhood age.
examples: text: This is my little sister.
glosses: Younger.
raw_tags: of a sibling
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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
text: 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.
ref: 2004, Barry Miles, Zappa: A Biography, edition, published 2005, →ISBN, page 5:
text: “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.
ref: 2020, Richa Bhosale, “Croatian Hall in need of repairs to remain open”, in Timmins Daily Press:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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
ref: 2012, Steve Coogan, Comedian Steve Coogan on Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre:
glosses: 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.
To imply that the inhabitants of the place have an insular attitude and are hostile to those they perceive as foreign.
examples: text: little herd
glosses: Having few members.
examples: text: Little Steel
translation: smaller steel companies, as contrasted with Big Steel
english: smaller steel companies, as contrasted with Big Steel
text: Little Science
translation: science performed by individuals or small teams, as contrasted with Big Science
english: science performed by individuals or small teams, as contrasted with Big Science
qualifier: or institution(s) therein
glosses: Operating on a small scale.
raw_tags: of an industry or other field
examples: text: I feel better after my little sleep.
glosses: Short in duration; brief.
examples: text: The long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise, / Because their natures are little.
ref: 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 20:
text: Showing unmistakably what a little person he really was, in June 1949 he wrote his newly married daughter with nauseating disregard for the truth
ref: 2001, Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis, The Unknown Callas: the Greek Years, page 547:
glosses: Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow, shallow, contracted; mean, illiberal, ungenerous.
Hyponyms: tiny
Derived terms: a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds
a little bird told me
a little bit
a little bit of bread and no cheese
a little from column A and a little from column B
a little goes a long way
a little knowledge is a dangerous thing
a little learning is a dangerous thing
a little matter
a little of something goes a long way
a little of the creature
and your little dog too
big fish eat little fish
big fish in a little pond
big-fish-little-pond effect
busy little beaver
by little and little
cry like a little girl
do a little bit of trolling
do a little trolling
do-little
don't worry your pretty little head
every little bit helps
every little helps
Fermat's little theorem
fighting little judge
grandlittle
Great and Little Hampden
Great and Little Leighs
great cry and little wool
great oaks from little acorns grow
happy little vegemite
have-a-little
have little time for
how's every little thing
in a little while
in little
in one's own little way
in one's own little world
I spy with my little eye
LBFM
leave little to the imagination
Little Armenia
little auk
Little Baguio
Little Barford
little barley
Little Bealings
Little Belt
Little Berlin
Little Billing
Little Billington
Little Bispham
little bit
little bittern
little black ant
little black book
little black cormorant
little black dress
little black serotine
Little Black Spot Mesa
Little Black Spot Mountain
little blue man
little blue pill
little bluestem
little bluestem grass
Little Bokhara
Little Bookham
Little Bourton
Little Bowden
little boy
little boys room
little boy's room
little boys' room
Little Brampton
Little Brickhill
Little Bridgeford
Little Britain
little bronze cuckoo
little brother
little brown dove
little brown job
little brown jug
Little Buenos Aires
little bunting
little bush moa
little bustard
little by little
Little Bytham
little casino
little cassino
Little Chalfont
Little Chesterford
Little Christmas
Little Colorado River
Little Colorado River Gorge
Little Comberton
Little Compton
little corella
Little Crater Lake
Little Dalby
Little Dewchurch
little Dick
little Dick Fisher
little did one know
Little Dipper
little dodo
little dog syndrome
Little Downham
Little Dunham
Little Dunmow
little-ease
Little Eaton
little egret
little Eichmann
little emperor
little emperor syndrome
little-endian
Little England
Little Englander
Little Falls
little finger
little fingernail
little folk
Little France
little friarbird
little friend
littlefur
Little Gem
little girl
little-girlish
little girls' room
little girl's room
little girls room
little go
little-go
little grebe
little green bee-eater
little green man
little gull
little guy
Little Hadham
little hand
Little Harrowden
Little Havana
Little Haven
Littlehaven
little head
Little Hereford
Little Houghton
little hour
little house
Little Hulton
Little Ice Age
Little Ilford
littlein
Little Irchester
Little Island
Little Italy
little Ivy
little Johnny
Little Kimble
little-known
little lady
little language
littleleaf
Little London
little lorikeet
Little Lumley
little lunch
little mad
Little Malvern
little man
little man in the boat
Little Marlow
Little Mill
Littlemill
little-minded
little minivet
Little Missenden
Little Missouri
little monster
Little Monster
Little Munden
Little Murray
little nail
little name
littleneck
littleness
Little Ness
Little Oakley
little office
little old
little ol'
little ole
little old me
little one
Little Ouse
little owl
Little Packington
Little Palestine
little peach
little penguin
little people
little person
Little Petherick
little piecer
little pink
little pitcher
little pitchers have big ears
little pitchers have long ears
Little Ponton
Little Ponton and Stroxton
little professor
Little Ramallah
little raven
Little Red Book
little red dot
Little Red Riding-Hood
Little Rhody
little ringed plover
Little River
Little River-Academy
Little Rock
Little Russia
Little Russian
Little Saigon
Little Salkeld
little school
Little Scotland
Little Shelford
little sib
little sibling
Little Silver
little sister
little slam
little slick
Little Smeaton
Little Snoring
Little Sodbury
Little Somerford
little spiderhunter
little spoon
little spotted cat
little spotted kiwi
little stint
Little Stoke
Little Stour
Little Strickland
little strokes fell great oaks
little summer of St Luke
little summer of St. Luke
Little Sutton
little swimmer
little tern
Little Tew
Little Thetford
little Timmy
little tinamou
little toe
little toenail
Little Tokyo
Little Traverse
little tunny
little-used
little v
Little Valley
Little Venice
Little Village
Little Walsingham
Little Weighton
Little Welnetham
Little Wenlock
Little Whelnetham
little white lie
little white mushroom
little white shakers syndrome
Little Wilbraham
little woman
little wonder
Little Wratting
Little Yeldham
littlie
littling
littlish
littlun
littly
litty
live a little
make little of
mighty oaks from little acorns grow
mother's little helper
My Little Pony
Newton and Little Oakley
NoLIta
not a little
oh me of little faith
oh ye of little faith
O me of little faith
one little duck
O ye of little faith
poor little meow meow
poor little rich boy
poor little rich girl
precious little
say hello to my little friend
show a little ginger
some little matter
take one's sweet little time
tall oaks from little acorns grow
think little of
think with one's little head
to little avail
twist around one's little finger
two little ducks
unlittle
wind around one's little finger
wrap around one's little finger
ye gods and little fishes
ye of little faith