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insignificant, a. (n.)|ɪnsɪgˈnɪfɪkənt|
[f. in-3 + significant: cf. F. insignifiant.]
1. Devoid of signification or meaning; meaningless: of speech, word, gestures, etc.
1651Hobbes Leviath. i. i. 4 The frequency of insignificant speech. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. vii. §2 Words that suggest no ideas are insignificant. 1751R. Paltock P. Wilkins xiv, By signs and gestures, which were very far from being insignificant. 1869–79Austin Jurispr. (ed. 4) II. xliii. 759 The terms ‘Law of Things’ and ‘Law of Persons’ are insignificant, i.e. they give no notion of the purpose of the distinction.
2. Devoid of significance, weight, or force.
†a. Without efficacy; ineffective. ineffectual.
1627–77Feltham Resolves ii. xxxiii. 226 Nature..must vary from her self, or by a drowsie sloth be rendered insignificant. 1672Wilkins Nat. Relig. i. xi. (1675) 164 Laws must be insignificant, without the sanction of Rewards and Punishments. 1681–6J. Scott Chr. Life (1747) III. 166 All that Christ hath suffered for us will be insignificant to our Discharge from our Obligation to Punishment, unless we repent and amend. a1735Arbuthnot (J.), In a hemorrhage from the lungs..stypticks are often insignificant.
b. Of no importance or moment; immaterial; trivial, trifling; mean, contemptible. (Now usually with some reference to magnitude: cf. 3.)
1658R. Newcourt Map Lond. (title), Some others whose short and insignificant raignes haue left them buried in oblivion. 1736Butler Anal. i. vii, Things seemingly the most insignificant imaginable, are perpetually observed to be a necessary condition to other things of the greatest importance. 1762Goldsm. Cit. W. lxix, It is insignificant how remote or near..the object of terror may be. 1813W. Taylor Eng. Synon. Introd. 20 Nor can it be wholly insignificant to the diffusion and preservation of our language, to have [etc.]. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 494 The schism which the oaths had produced was, as yet, insignificant. 1879Froude Cæsar xiv. 218 The Roman loss was insignificant in this battle.
c. Of a person, in regard to position, character, influence, etc.
1669Clarendon Ess. Tracts (1727) 126 No man is so insignificant, as that he can be sure his example can do no hurt. 1751–73Jortin Eccl. Hist. (R.), Jerom wrote against him..and treats him as an insignificant blockhead. 1833H. Martineau Loom & Lugger ii. v. 79 What matters the ruin of one insignificant Frenchman? 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 84 Thomas Powis, an insignificant man, who had no qualification for high employment except servility.
3. Small in size; petty; mean.
1748Anson's Voy. i. vi. 64 No other wood has been found than a few insignificant shrubs. 1794Sullivan View Nat. II. 17 If Mont Blanc could be transported to the foot of Chimboraço, Chimboraço, all prodigious as it is supposed, would appear of very insignificant dimensions. 1844Thirlwall Greece VIII. lxvi. 460 Thebes had sunk to an insignificant village.
B. as n.
a. A word or thing without signification.
b. An unimportant or contemptible person.
1710Steele Tatler No. 247 ⁋6 If we are the Insignificants that others call us, Where is the Triumph in deceiving us? 1785Tytler Lounger No. 16 ⁋15, I despised the giddy restless insignificants that figured in this perpetual drama. 1816J. Gilchrist Philos. Etym. 125 A few experiments upon the terminations in question, will probably convince the reader that they are merely connectives; and he will recollect..that connectives are nearly akin to insignificants.
Hence † insigˈnificantness (Bailey, 1727). |