minus
Part of speech: prep
noun
adj
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: mathematics
sciences
Etymology: From Middle English mynus, from Latin minus, neuter form of minor, comparative form of parvus (“small, little”), from the Proto-Indo-European root *mey- (“few, small”).
Inflected forms:
form: minuses
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: minusses
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: minuses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: minusses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: minusing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: minussing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: minused
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: minused
pos: verb
tags: past
form: minussed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: minussed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).
pos: prep
examples: Seven minus two is five.
gloss: Without; deprived of.
pos: prep
tags: informal
examples: I walked out minus my coat.
gloss: The minus sign (−).
pos: noun
examples: On the third day a Master Barnard brings me up a slate full of plusses, minusses, x, y, z’s, and other letters of the alphabet, in a most amiable algebraical confusion.
gloss: A negative quantity.
pos: noun
gloss: A downside or disadvantage.
pos: noun
examples: He valued Roderick’s friendship with the highest value he put on anything nowadays. Over the years they had assessed each other’s plusses and minusses and settled for the difference.
As with LCR tout court the question is less to do with the plusses and minusses of the individual ideologies in themselves than in their relationship with their opposite numbers, in this case of Reason with Emotion.
When Morrison mulls the pluses and minuses associated with rebuking Kelly for undermining the government’s public health messaging, the prime minister faces a genuine substantive dilemma, and that goes to the risks of amplification.
gloss: Being a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: a minus number
gloss: That is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: minus seven degrees
gloss: Worse off than before; out of pocket.
pos: adj
tags: colloquial
not-comparable
obsolete
examples: The races being finished, we left Epsom for London, Mordaunt's natural vile temper not being at all improved by being three hundred pounds minus by the week's speculation […] .
gloss: Ranking just below (a designated rating).
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
postpositional
examples: He got a grade of B minus for his essay.
gloss: To subtract.
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
transitive
examples: For example, in solving the following equation, x + 4 = 9, the child using the negating mechanism will reason, "minussing 4" undoes "plussing 4" therefore, if x + 4 = 9 then x = 5 and will not see any point in using any intermediate steps.
(The terms positive and negative feedback are now part of everyday language where the meanings are reversed: in cybernetic systems, positive feedback is undesirable for it indicates that the discrepancy is “plussing,” rather than “minussing” to zero.)
Four plus one is 5 and you go down because it's minusing, […]
“But you also minussed! … Sam… Sam also minussed seventy-two but he also… one hundred forty-four minus seventy-two equals seventy-two. He also minussed the seventy-two.”
Synonyms: defect
deficiency
drawback
flaw
shortcoming
negative
Antonyms: plus
plus sign
antonym(s) of
advantage
bonus
boon
gain
Derived words: ice-minus
minus sign
T-minus
check minus
hyphen-minus
minus-one
minus-plus sign
minus pool
mix-minus
plus minus
plus-minus
plus-minus method
plus-minus sign
plus or minus
A minus
F minus
minus-alpha-pinene
pi-minus
Translations: