| 释义 |
▪ I. little, a., adv., and n.|ˌlɪt(ə)l|
Forms: 1 lýtel, lítel, Northumb. lyttil, (lýtl-, lítl-), 2–3 lutel, lut(t)l-, lit(t)l-, 3 lutil, luttel, leitel, 3–5 luytel, litelle, -ul, 3–6 lit(t)el, litell, 4 luitel, littil, lytille, -ulle, 4–5 lytul, 4–6 lytel, -il, -yll, litil(l, littill, -ell, 4–7 litle, 5 litull(e, -ille, -yll, littull, lytyle, -elle, 5–6 lyt(t)ell, lyttyll, lytill, -yl(le, 6 lyt(t)le, lyttil, lytel, lityll, (laytell, lickell, 7 lickle), 6– little. See also leetle.
[OE. lýtel, lytel, corresponds to OS. luttil (MDu. luttel, lettel, Du. luttel), OHG. luzzil, also liuzil, ? lūzil (MHG., mod.G. dial. lützel):—WGer. *lū̆ttilo-, f. *lū̆t (prob. f. the root of OE. lútan to bow down: see lout v.) represented in OE. lýt, lyt (and the equivalent forms: see lite n.), and in OS. luttik, OFris. littich, OHG. luzzîg little. A synonymous and phonetically similar (but radically unconnected) adj. OTeut. *lîtilo- is found as Goth. leitils, ON. lítell (Sw. liten, lilla, Da. liden, lille), and possibly in OE. lítel, MDu. lîtel, mod.Flem. lijter; the root *līt-:—pre-Teut. *leid- may be cogn. with *loid- in Gr. λοίδορος abuse, L. lūdus (:—*loidos) play; some scholars have compared Lith. laidau I let flow, leidžu I set free.
The long vowel in OE. lýtel is vouched for by metrical evidence (Sievers in Beiträge X. 504) and certain features of the declension (Sarrazin ibid. IX. 365), as well as by the early ME. luitel. On the other hand, the Northumb. lyttel, and the widespread early ME. luttel, littel, suggest that the y may have been short in some dialects, and perh. generally in the syncopated flexional forms. The modern dialects that are marked by a large Scandinavian element in the vocabulary mostly have the vowel long, the pronunciation being |ˈlɑːt(ə)l| or the like; this seems to point to influence from the ON. lítell.]
A. adj. The opposite of great or much. Compar. less, lesser; superl. least.
These forms, however, are not quite coextensive in application with the positive, so that in certain uses the adj. has no recognized mode of comparison. The difficulty is commonly evaded by resort to a synonym (as smaller, smallest); some writers have ventured to employ the unrecognized forms littler, littlest, which are otherwise confined to dialect or imitations of childish or illiterate speech.
I. Opposed to great. Often synonymous with small.
Its customary antithetic association (in mod. Eng.) is with great or big, not with large; on the other hand, small is the customary antithesis of great or large, but not of big. One difference between the two synonyms is that little is capable of emotional implications, which small is not.
1. a. Of material objects, portions of space, etc.: Small in size, not large or big. Of persons: Short in stature.
c1000ælfric Gram. i. (Z.) 2 Ic ælfric wolde þas lytlan boc awendan to engliscum ᵹereorde of ðam stæfcræfte. a1225Leg. Kath. 2517 Of þe lutle banes, þe floweð ut wið þe eoile, floweð oðer eoile ut. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 407/162 He may here in þe grounde ane luttle worm i-seo. a1300Cursor M. 14939 A littel hill Man calles mont oliuete. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 373 He schewede to hym a lytulle rownd dyche. 1470–85Malory Arthur i. xvi, The xj kynges..withdrewe hem to a lytil woode and so ouer a lytyl ryuer. 1567Satir. Poems Reform. iii. 178 War..I ane cat and sho ane lyttill mous. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. i. ii. 1 By my troth Nerrissa, my little body is wearie of this great world. a1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. 4 Even in the very little Insects, there appears the excellent work of the Divine Wisdom. 1735Bolingbroke Study Hist. (1777) 335 There is a prejudice in China in favour of little feet. 1818Scott Rob Roy xiii, You may bring him to the little back-gate. 1849Thackeray Pendennis xxi, She was called tall and gawky by some..of her own sex, who prefer littler women.
b. Used to designate animal and vegetable species or varieties which are distinguished by their smallness from others belonging to the same genus or bearing the same name.
c1450ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 227 Þe lytel daysye. 1562Turner Herbal ii. 133 Moustayle or litle stone crop. 1776–96Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 327 Little Mouse-tail. 1785J. Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds III. i. 90 Little Egret... Size of a Fowl: length near a foot: weight one pound. 1802G. Montagu Ornith. Dict. I. s.v. Egret, Little Egret. 1831A. Wilson & Bonaparte Amer. Ornith. I. 110 The little owl is seven inches and a half long. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 295 Little Bulbous Rush. 1876Smiles Sc. Natur. xii. (ed. 4) 247 The Little Auk has a wonderful power of resisting the fury of the waves. 1908R. Lydekker Sportsman's Brit. Bird Bk. 248 Of the little egret..sixteen individuals appear to have been recorded from the British Islands during the last century. 1919Little-smelt [see grunion]. 1953Calif. Almanac 36/2 On certain moonlit nights in the spring great numbers of small fish, termed ‘grunion’ or ‘little smelt’ appear along the beaches. 1971Country Life 18 Feb. 356/3 Neither the little egret nor the common heron have been proved to breed in the [Ebro] delta, though both are present.
c. Used to characterize the smaller or less important of two countries or places of the same name. † Little Britain, Brittany. Similarly in many Eng. village names, as Little Gidding, Little Malvern; in river-names; and in names of streets: cf. great a. 6 e. Also in names of constellations, as the Little Bear: cf. great a. 6 d. Little Witham: in phrases.
c1400Mandeville (1839) xxv. 259 Descendynge toward the litille Armenye. c1450King Ponthus & Fair Sidone xxvi. heading (1897) 93 How Ponthus retorned to Litle Bretayn. c1530[see britain n.1 2]. 1560J. Heywood Fourth Hundred Epygrams sig. A7 Whens come great breeches? from little wittam. 1595R. Wilson Pedlers Prophecie sig. B4v At litle Wytham seuen yeares I went to schoole. 1640Yorke Union Hon. 73 Philebert de Chandew, a Baron in his own countrey of little Brittaine in France. a1661Fuller Worthies (1662) Lincs. 153 He was born at Little Wittham... It is applyed to such people as are not overstock'd with acutenesse. 1677F. Sandford Genealog. Hist. Kings Eng. 62 Conan of Little Britain. 1787Grose Provincial Gloss. s.v. Essex, He was born at Little Wittham. A punning insinuation that the person spoken of wants understanding. Ray places this proverb in Lincolnshire. 1932E. Weekley Words & Names x. 151 The stupid are said to be ‘born at Little Witham’.
d. With superl. meaning, in little finger, little toe.
a1000Boeth. Metr. xx. 179 Þæt hire [sc. of the soul] þy læsse on ðæm lytlan ne bið anum fingre þe hire on eallum bið þæm lichoman. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 309/329 Ȝif he ne may with is luytel finguer ane man to sunne teche. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxix. (1495) 140 The fyfthe fyngre is the lytyll fyngre and highte Auricularis. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 36 Ech poynt schal be from oþir bi þe brede of a litil fyngir. 14..Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 679/10 Hic articulus, a lytyle too. 1535Coverdale 1 Kings xii. 10 My litle fynger shall be thicker then my fathers loynes. 1563–83Foxe A. & M. II. 804/1 Openly pronouncing that Luther had more learning in his litle finger, then all y⊇ doctours in England in their whole bodies. 1643I. Steer tr. Exp. Chyrurg. xv. 61 His fore-finger..and little finger were..burnt. 1726Monro Anat. Bones (1741) 305 Os metatarsi of the little Toe is the shortest. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge lxxviii, He used the little finger..of his right hand as a tobacco-stopper. 1872Mivart Elem. Anat. 152 The fifth [finger is] the ‘little digit’.
e. Often emphasized by being coupled with some other adj. implying smallness. † Also reduplicated little little.
a1400–50Alexander 507 Scho had layd in his lape a litill tyne egg. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 189 When he..sawe there a litle litle herthe, & in the same a litle preatie small fyer, he saied [etc.]. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, iii. iii. 153 And my large Kingdome, for a little Graue, A little little Graue, an obscure Graue. 1597― 2 Hen. IV, v. i. 29 Any pretty little tine Kickshawes. 1598― Merry W. i. iv. 22 He hath but a little wee-face.
2. a. Used spec. of young children or animals. little one (often pl.): child, offspring, young one.
c893K. ælfred Oros. iii. xvii. §1 His ᵹingran dohtor..seo wæs lytel cild. c1200Ormin 3217 Þiss lif to ledenn he bigann Whann he wass ȝet full litell. Ibid. 8053 Whil þatt I wass litell child Icc held o childess þæwess. c1386Chaucer Man of Law's Prol. 73 Thy litel children hanging by the hals For thy Iason, that was in loue so fals. c1420Sir Amadace (Camden) lxvii, He toke vppe the ladi, and the litulle knaue. 1468J. Paston, jun. in P. Lett. II. 319 And, modyr, I beseche yow that ye wolbe good mastras to my lytyll man, and to se that he go to scole. 1526Tindale Matt. xviii. 6 Whosoever offende one of these lytell wons, which beleve in me. 1598Shakes. Merry W. iv. iv. 47 Nan Page (my daughter) and my little sonne. 1611Cotgr., Petit,..the little one, or young one, of a beast. 1641Marmion Antiquary i. i, Well said, little-one, I think thou art wiser than both of them. 1779T. Twining in Recreat. & Stud. (1882) 71 My sister and her little fellow-traveller. 1819Shelley Cenci v. iii. 103 My wife! my little ones! Destitute, helpless. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 172 Through life he continues to regard the little Bentincks with paternal kindness. 1894H. Drummond Ascent Man 377 Among the Carnivora the mothers have frequently to hide their little ones in case the father eats them. 1898F. Montgomery Tony 19 The little boy's small back.
¶b. little language: Swift's name for the infantine dialect which he used in conversation and correspondence with ‘Stella’. (Often quoted in references to Swift's life.) Also transf.
1711Swift Jrnl. to Stella 4 May (1901) 209 Do you know that every syllable I write I hold my lips just for all the world as if I were talking in our own little language to MD? 1863Fraser's Mag. Feb. 152/1 She carried on hip a prize baby, a most ‘doody’ thing, to quote the ‘little language’. 1866Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. II. xxiv. 244 Some innocent sentences of love,..little sentences in ‘little language’ that went home to the squire's heart. 1922O. Jespersen Lang. viii. 144 It would not do, however, for the child's ‘little language’ and its dreadful mistakes to become fixed. 1944H. G. Wells '42 to '44 142 The first thing two lovers set about doing is..to devise a little language of their own.
c. In collocations little brother, little sister: younger (cf. 2 a). Also fig.
1611Bible Song of Solomon viii. 8 We haue a little sister, and shee hath no breasts. 1799Jane Austen Let. 21 Jan. (1952) 57 Our own particular little brother got a place in the coach last night. 1859Thackeray Virgin. II. xii. 93 Your brother and mine are gone to see our little brother at his school at the Chartreux. 1876C. M. Yonge Womankind xvi. 126 In no case should they go without a more real chaperon than a maid or a little sister's governess. 1940G. B. Shaw Geneva (1946) iv. 123 Ruritania is, so to speak, our little sister, and..if you laid a finger on her..we should be obliged to knock the stuffing out of you. 1949R. Chandler (title) The little sister. 1974Country Life 21 Nov. 1573/3 At present this dehydrated food is only available to caterers and food manufacturers, although its little sister Vegex (dehydrated vegetarian version) is on sale in some health-food shops.
d. little brother (see quot. 1928 and cf. big a. 3 g); also attrib. and in extended use.
1928Daily Tel. 10 July 16/2 Ninety-six youths will leave Tilbury to-day to take up farm work in Australia... Captain R. T. Thornton..will visit many of the 1,400 ‘Little Brothers’ who have gone to the Commonwealth. 1962Times 25 Apr. 11/6 ‘Little brother’ organizations formed mostly of young people.
e. Phr. to laugh like little Audrey: to laugh heartily (esp. at a serious situation). Also attrib., of a type of joke, a cruellie.
1939C. Morley Kitty Foyle xiv. 143 She laughs like Little Audrey. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. v. 82 Crazes for limericks, Little Audrey jokes, Knock-knocks, and Shaggy Dog stories. 1972J. Aiken Butterfly Picnic ix. 165 If I choose to..laugh like little Audrey when I'm all knotted up..who the hell's got the right to forbid me?
3. Used to convey an implication of endearment or depreciation, or of tender feeling on the part of the speaker. Also coupled with an epithet expressing such feelings, e.g. pretty, sweet little.
1567Satir. Poems Reform. iii. 154 The wois that Ouid in Ibin Into his pretty lytill buik did wryte. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 204 And when she weepes, weepe euerie little flower. 1596― Merch. V. v. i. 21 In such a night Did pretty Iessica (like a little shrow) Slander her Loue. 1597― 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 225, I prethee Iack be quiet, the Rascall is gone: ah, you whorson little valiant Villaine, you. 1694Wood Life 23 June, I returned from London in the company of a little poore thing, Sir Lacy Osbaldeston. 1819Shelley Cyclops 246 My dear sweet master, My darling little Cyclops. 1847Tennyson Princess Prol. 154 A rosebud set with little wilful thorns. 1849Dickens Dav. Copp. xxvi, She had the most delightful little voice, the gayest little laugh, the pleasantest and most fascinating little ways, that ever led a lost youth into hopeless slavery. 1883R. W. Dixon Mano i. viii. 23 Sweet was her carriage, sweet the little folds Of her fair dress close drawn with meekest care. Mod. Bless your little heart!
4. Of collective unities: Having few members, inhabitants, etc.; small in number.
c1000Ags. Gosp. Luke xii. 32 Ne ondræd þu þe la lytle heord. c1386Chaucer Manciple's Prol. 1 A litel toun Which þat ycleped is Bobbe up and down. 1513Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 1845 A lytell vyllage called Exmynge. 1565Stapleton tr. Bæda's Hist. Ch. Eng. 152 A litle parte of these reliques were at that time in this monasterie. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. i. i. 13 Our Court shall be a little Achademe. 1591― 1 Hen. VI, iv. ii. 46 A little Heard of Englands timorous Deere. 1611Bible Exod. xii. 4 If the houshold be too little [Coverdale few] for the lambe. 1696View Crt. St. Germain 2 The number of the Consciencious Jacobites..must be very little. 1754Cowper Ep. Rob. Lloyd 18 A fierce banditti..Make cruel inroads in my brain, And daily threaten to drive thence My little garrison of sense. 1820Keats Ode on Grecian Urn iv, What little town by river or sea shore..Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 7 In the realm of mere letters, Voltaire is one of the little band of great monarchs. 1879Whitney Sanskrit Gram. 157 In a little class of instances (eight) the root has a preposition prefixed.
5. Of immaterial things, considered in respect of their quantity, length in series, etc.
c1275Passion Our Lord 1 in O.E. Misc. 37 Ihereþ nv one lutele tale þat ich eu wille telle. c1330Spec. Gy Warw. 166 He..halt þerof ful litel prys. 1470–85Malory Arthur xviii. xviii, The knyghte..put..a lytel dele of water in his mouthe. 1555Bradforth in Strype Eccl. Mem. III. App. xlv. 127 Thoughe yt be never so daungerous to me to sett this lyttell treatys abroad. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. i. ii. 54 Ile speake in a monstrous little voyce. 1599― Much Ado v. i. 162, I said thou hadst a fine wit: true saies she, a fine little one. 1598T. Bastard Chrestoleros 14 The Printer when I askt a little summe, Huckt with me for my booke. 1809Malkin Gil Blas v. i. ⁋66 He was no longer at a loss for his little pocket expenses. 1843Dickens Christmas Carol iii. 99 Tiny Tim..had a plaintive little voice and sang it very well indeed. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 335 Proprietors, who..derived their subsistence from little freehold estates. 1872Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §499 The indefinite article, which is descended from the littlest of the numerals. 1875E. C. Stedman Victorian Poets 152 A little poem, ‘The Flower’.
6. a. Of dimension, distance, or period of time: Short. † so little while (advb. phr.): for so short a time.
Beowulf 2097 (Gr.) He onweᵹ losade, lytle hwile lifwynna breac. c1205Lay. 343 Nes Brutus i þon londe bute lutel ane wile. Ibid. 26939 Þer heo leien stille ane lutle stunde. a1300–1400Cursor M. 14754 (Gött.) Ȝe felle þis kirc dune to þe grund, I sal it raise in littel stound. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints Prol. 28 In lytil space here, I wryt þe lyf of sanctis sere. c1420Lydg. Assembly of Gods 1283 A lytyll tyne hys ey castyng hym besyde. c1440Generydes 148 After soper, withynne a litill space She brought hym to his bedde with torche light. c1540in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) I. ii. App. lxxii. 174 They may think things pas lightly here, that are so little while liked. 1591Harington Orl. Fur. ii. xii, When that she a little way had past. 1610Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 157 Our little life Is rounded with a sleepe. 1667Milton P.L. x. 320 And now in little space The Confines met of Empyrean Heav'n And of this World. 1675Marvell Corr. ccxxxvi. Wks. 1872– 5 II. 449 Although..the House of Commons hath both days been long and very busy, the relation falls within a litle compasse. 1712Addison Spect. No. 475 ⁋2 She hopes to be married in a little time. 1859FitzGerald tr. Omar iii. (1899) 70 You know how little while we have to stay.
b. Qualifying a n. denoting definite measure of duration or distance, to emphasize its brevity. † Also, in 16–17th c., used for: Bare, scarcely complete.
1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cvii. 128 In the mornyng they wer within two lytell leages of Auberoche. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 343 The Abbey of Mauros, which was .ix. little myle from Rosebourgh. 1602Shakes. Ham. i. ii. 147 A little Month, or ere these shooes were old. 1670Cotton Espernon ii. vii. 312 This retirement of the Duke's being but ten little Leagues from Paris. 1697tr. Le Comte's Mem. & Rem. China iv. (1737) 108 It is off of Nankin thirty leagues from the sea, a little half league broad. 1794Cowper Moralizer corrected 17 Distant a little mile he spied A western bank's still sunny side. 1816J. Wilson City of Plague ii. i. 98 Your brother died Some little hours before. 1848Brougham Of Revolutions Wks. 1857 VIII. 332 But a little month ago, and..the Germans would have held the like language of national self-complacency. 1871R. Ellis tr. Catullus v. 5 We, when sets in a little hour the brief light, Sleep one infinite age, a night for ever.
7. a. Of qualities, emotions, conditions, actions, or occurrences: Small in extent or degree.
c1205Lay. 26452 For æuere heo ȝelp makieð heore monscipe is luttel. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. Prol. 195 Better is a litel losse þan a longe sorwe. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 333 No man shuld liȝe a lytel lesyng to saue þe worlde. c1440Boctus & Sidrak (Laud MS. 559 lf. 3), I shall teche yoow a lytill ieste: That befelle oonys in Y⊇ Este. 1513Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 704 Þat litel sinful dede. 1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 182 (1604 Qo.) Where loue is great, the litlest doubts are feare, Where little feares grow great, great loue growes there. c1620in Hatton Corr. (1878) 3 It is a sinn, and that not a lickle one. 1768Goldsm. Good-n. Man i. i, Upon that I proceed,..though with very little hopes to reclaim him. 1885J. K. Fowler in Daily News 14 July 2/1 Fowl-growing and egg-selling are distinctly little businesses.
†b. Const. of: Having the quality or performing the action mentioned to a slight extent only.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. I. 195 And siþ þes foulis ben litil of prys. c1381Chaucer Parl. Foules 513, I am a sede foul..and litil of cunnynge. 1432Rolls of Parlt. IV. 405/2 Thei [wines] wex all noght or litell of value. c1450Bk. Curtasye 34 in Babees Bk., Loke þou be hynde and lytulle of worde. 1484Caxton Fables of æsop iv. xiv, It behoveth not to the yong and lytyl of age to mocke..theyr older. 1508Dunbar Tua mariit wemen 185 He lukis as he wald luffit be, thocht he be litill of valour.
c. With agent-noun or n. indicating occupation, etc.: That is such on a small scale.
c1440Promp. Parv. 308/1 Lytylle lyare, mendaculus. 1767A. Young Farmer's Lett. to People 55 A much larger capital than any little farmer can possess. 1834Youatt Cattle vi. 192 The dairyman and the little farmer clung to the old breed.
d. Now often idiomatically in somewhat playful use, indicating some feeling of amusement on the part of the speaker.
1885Anstey Tinted Venus 72 How long do you mean to carry on this little game? 1888Rider Haggard Col. Quaritch ix, How well she managed that little business of the luncheon. Mod. I understand his little ways.
8. a. Of things: Not of great importance or interest; trifling, trivial.
a1100O.E. Chron. an. 656 (Laud MS.) Hit is litel þeos ᵹife. a1175Cott. Hom. 221 Hwi wolde god swa litles þinges him forwerne. c1200Vices & Virtues (1888) 17 Ouer litel þing ðu ware trewe; ouer michel þing ic ðe scal setten. a1300Cursor M. 3302 Leue freind..þine asking Es noght bot a litell thing. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, i. iii. 213 How long a time lyes in one little word. 1606― Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 134 All little Ielousies which now seeme great..Would then be nothing. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 524 Every little discontent appears to him to portend a revolution. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. v, Constant attention in the littlest things.
b. Of persons: Not distinguished, inferior in rank or condition. Now rare.
c1220Bestiary 689 He ðe is ai in heuene mikel, wurð her man, and tus was litel. c1450tr. De Imitatione iii. viii. 75 If þou coudist at all tymes abide meke & litel in þiself. c1477Caxton Jason 11, I am..litil seruaunt unto the quene of the countre. 1611Bible 1 Sam. xv. 17 When thou wast litle in thine owne sight. 1744Ozell tr. Brantome's Sp. Rhodomontades 69 Honour'd and esteem'd..both by Gentle and Simple, by Little and Great Folks. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 152 ⁋5 To learn how to become little without being mean. 1772Mackenzie Man World i. viii. (1823) 428 There is no Tax so heavy on a little man, as an acquaintance with a great one.
9. Paltry, mean, contemptible; little-minded.
1483Cath. Angl. 218/2 Litille,..decliuus ad ingenium pertinet. Ibid., Litille,..paulus mediocritatis est, paululus, pupus, pusulanimis. c1665Mrs. Hutchinson Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1885) II. 43 One of their own members who encouraged all those little men in their wicked persecution of him. Ibid. II. 74 Almost all the parliament-garrisons were infested and disturbed with like factious little people. 1693Dryden Juvenal xiv. Notes (1697) 367 He dy'd a very little Death..being Martyr'd by the fall of a Tile from a House. 1701Rowe Amb. Step-Moth. ii. ii. 804, I hear thee and disdain thy little Malice. 1712Steele Spect. No. 268 ⁋2 [It] renders the Nose-puller odious, and makes the Person pulled by the Nose look little and contemptible. 1766Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) II. xiii. 246 Haughtiness is always little. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. xi. I. 308 The little passions which so frequently perplex a female reign. 1829Lytton Devereux ii. viii, The littlest feeling of all is a delight in contemplating the littleness of other people. 1863Cowden Clarke Shaks. Char. xix. 484 They do this with the little cunning of little minds.
II. Opposed to much.
10. a. Not much; only a slight amount or degree of; barely any. (Often preceded by but. Also in phr. little or no...).
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xiv. 31 He..þus cwæð la lytles ᵹeleafan hwi twynedest þu? a1300Cursor M. 530 Þow may þam find with litul suink. c1320Sir Tristr. 2125 Tristrem, for soþe to say, Y wold þe litel gode. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. i. 139 To litel latyn þow lernedest, lede, in þi ȝouthe. c1386Chaucer Shipman's Prol. 28 Ther is but litil Latin in my mawe. c1449Pecock Repr. i. iii. 16 Holi Writt ȝeueth litil or noon liȝt therto at al. 1581Mulcaster Positions vi. (1887) 45 To much meat cloyes, to litle faintes. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. iv. i. 11 Then know that I haue little wealth to loose. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 703 Strong Desires th' impatient Youth invade; By little Caution and much Love betray'd. 1821Shelley in Lady Shelley Mem. (1859) 54 There is little probability of an injunction being granted. 1828Macaulay Hallam Ess. (1872) 71 He had little money, little patronage, no military establishment. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 213 William..was able to attack the town from the point where it gained little advantage from its site.
b. Forming with its n. a kind of privative combination, with the sense ‘absence or scarcity of’ (what the n. denotes). Now rare.
c1000Ags. Ps. lxxxviii. 40 Gemune, mære God, hwæt si min lytle sped [L. quæ mea substantia]. c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 905 The lytell corage, la pusillanimité. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 220 They thinke my little stomacke to the warre..restraines you thus. 1654–66Earl of Orrery Parthen. (1676) 535 Surena was constrain'd by his little Victuals. 1752Burke Corr. (1844) I. 29 Our little curiosity, perhaps, cleared us of that imputation [of being spies]. 1802Wordsw. Sailor's Mother 35 God help me for my little wit!
11. a. a little: a small quantity of; some, though not much. Identical in sense with a little of (see B. 4) from which it prob. originated by ellipsis.
14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 604/20 Posse, a lytyl hauynge, or a lytyl myght. c1430Two Cookery-bks. 16 Caste þer-to a littel Safroun & Salt. c1450ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 134 Take harde spaynessh sepe and a litul stale ale. 1545T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 128 The iuyce of quynces with a lyttell cloues and sugre. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI 166 b, Whose mother susteyned not a litle slaunder and obloquye of the common people. 1595Shakes. John iii. iv. 176 As a little snow, tumbled about, Anon becomes a Mountaine. 1598Bacon Ess., Atheisme (Arb.) 125 A little naturall philosophie..doth dispose the opinion to Atheisme. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 215 A little learning is a dang'rous thing. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 6 By a little patience, prudence, and justice, such a toleration might have been obtained. 1901H. Black Culture & Restraint iii. 88 It takes a great deal of life to make a little art.
†b. Rarely used without a in this sense. Obs.
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. i. 43 A Body, yet distemper'd, Which to his former strength may be restor'd, With good aduice, and little Medicine. 1601― Twel. N. v. i. 174 O do not sweare, Hold little faith, though thou hast too much feare.
†12. With pl. and collect. sing.: = few. Obs.
13..Guy Warw. (A.) 2468 Þemperour..Wille huntte to morwe..Wiþ litel folk & nouȝt wiþ miche. 1430–40Lydg. Bochas v. iv. (1494) R j, Cleomenes..with lityll peple made his fone to flee. 1621Lady M. Wroth Urania 541 Desiring to know what accident brought him thither, especially armed, where little Armes was required. 1660Fuller Mixt Contempl. 28 Our late Civil warre which lasted so long in our land; yet left so little signs behind it.
III. 13. Special collocations: Little American (cf. Little Englander), Americanism; little black dress (or frock, etc.), a simple black garment suitable for a woman to wear at most kinds of relatively formal social engagements; little chief hare N. Amer. [tr. Chipewyan bucka-thrae-ggayaze], a North American pika, Ochotona princeps; little death [cf. F. petite mort], a weakening or loss of consciousness, spec. in sleep, during an orgasm, etc.; † little Easter Sunday, ? Low Sunday; Little Englander, one who advocated a ‘little England’, that is, desired to restrict the dimensions and responsibilities of the Empire; so Little Englandism, the policy or views of Little Englanders; Little Entente: see entente (quot. 1923); little fever ? U.S., typhoid (Cent. Dict.); little giant, ‘a jointed iron nozzle used in hydraulic mining’ (Raymond Mining Gloss.); cf. giant n. 4; little green man, an imaginary inhabitant of outer space; an imaginary person of peculiar appearance (in quot. 1906 an actual person tattooed green); little habit = lesser habit (s.v. habit n. 2 b); little hours, the ‘hours’ of prime, terce, sext, and none (= F. les petites heures); little house, a privy (now Austral., N.Z., and dial.); Little Irelander (cf. Little Englander); † little Jack, an irreverent name for the little box (sometimes in the form of a human figure) in which the reserved sacrament was enclosed within the Easter sepulchre during part of Holy Week; little Joe, in the game of Craps (see quots.); † little king [tr. L. regulus, cf. F. roitelet], the wren; little magazine, a name designating any of various periodicals devoted to serious literary or artistic interests (see also quots.); also attrib.; so (as colloq. abbrev.) little mag; Little Mary colloq., the stomach; (poor) little me († I), used to convey the speaker's mock-depreciation of (and the supposed vulnerability of) himself; little mother, a young girl who behaves maternally towards her younger brothers or sisters, or her dolls; little Ned (also little Neddy) [neddy 3], one of a number of committees under the National Economic Development Council; little old (followed by a pronoun or a name): used as an endearing or mock-depreciatory mode of reference; little Orphan(t) Annie, the name of an orphan child in a poem by J. W. Riley and a strip-cartoon by Harold Gray, used allusively in various senses (see quots.); † little pox, small-pox; little review = little magazine; little science, term used of scientific and technological investigation that does not require large resources; little season, a fashionable season in London in the winter; † little son [= F. petit-fils], a grandson; little theatre, a small playhouse, esp. one used for dramatic experiment (in quot. 1771 the name of an actual theatre); also attrib.; Little Venice, a name given to various local areas felt to resemble Venice in canal scenery; also attrib.; Little Willie, a term first used of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor August Ernst of Germany (1882–1951) and applied to persons as a term of disparagement and to weapons (see quots.); (quot. 1907 is prob. an unconnected casual use); little woman, (a) one's wife, freq. with the; (b) a private dressmaker or odd-job woman. See also Little bethel, cassino, custom (n. 4), entrance (1 c), mass, seal, shilling, etc.; also the main words below.
1904Press (Philadelphia) 11 Aug. 6 Judge Parker's whole contention is that of the *little American. Ibid., His *little Americanism invites fuller discussion.
1902H. James Wings of Dove xviii. 427 She might fairly have been dressed tonight in the *little black frock..that Milly had laid aside. 1949D. Smith I capture Castle xi. 192 Perhaps it gives you a glorious, valuable feeling to wear little black suits of fabulous price. 1951Woman & Beauty May 1/2 Invest your all in one good little black dress. 1968J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 19 Little black dress. This highly useful garment was at first almost the trademark of the British designer, Molyneux, who perfected it as an ‘after 6’ look in the cocktail party era between 1920 and 1939. The ultimate in sophistication then, it is still much in demand. 1973Country Life 13 Dec. 2067/1, I have included a little black dress in my photographs this week, because I think it is the right alternative to glitter for winter '73.
1868Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. IV. 6 Lagomys princeps Richardson—‘*Little Chief Hare’; Rat-rabbit. 1898F. Russell Explor. Far North p. vi, The timid squeak of the little chief hare was often heard. 1947V. H. Cahalane Mammals N. Amer. 581 Some imaginative naturalist has given the animal the title of ‘little chief hare’. 1960Canad. Audubon Jan.–Feb. 28/3 The industrious little pika has yet another name, the Indian name, ‘Little Chief Hare’.
1932A. Huxley Brave New World v. 89 The sexophones wailed like melodious cats under the moon, moaned in the alto and tenor registers as though the *little death were upon them. 1939― After Many a Summer ii. ii. 198 Like all the other addictions, whether to drugs or books, to power or applause, the addiction to pleasure tends to aggravate the condition it temporarily alleviates. The addict goes down into the valley of the shadow of his own particular little death. 1959W. Golding Free Fall v. 108 The little death shared or self-inflicted was neither irrelevant nor sinful. 1959D. Krook Three Traditions Moral Thought x. 275 That other aspect of the sexual act that Augustine finds so disturbing, that oblivion which the poets called the ‘little death’, the overwhelming of the will and the reason, need have no terror in it. 1969G. Sims Sand Dollar x. 126 She attained her climax with a deep shudder... Her features took on a delicate nature in the ‘little death’. 1971R. Rendell One Across iii. xxi. 166 A little death would make the unbearable present pass... The pubs wouldn't be open yet. 1973D. Bagley Tightrope Men i. 9 That everyday miracle of the reintegration of the psyche after the little death of sleep.
1602Carew Cornwall 137 b, Vpon *little Easter Sunday the Freeholders..did there assemble.
1895Westm. Gaz. 1 Aug. 2/2 Do not let us fall into the error so often made by *Little Englanders and suppose that [etc.].
1899Times 20 Jan. 9/2 Mr. Morley's proud pronouncement of the faith of ‘*Little Englandism’.
1874Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 352 In Deer Lodge County..‘*little giants’..have been introduced.
[1906Kipling Puck of Pook's Hill 185 The little green man orated like a—like Cicero.] 1961Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1170/2 *Little green men, mysterious beings alleged to have been seen emerging from flying saucers. 1966K. Giles Provenance of Death iv. 121 Are you saying you are being watched perhaps by little green men? 1967M. Kenyon Whole Hog iv. 42 There was a desert-island cartoon..and a little-green-men-from-Mars cartoon. 1969C. Hodder-Williams 98–4 iv. 46, I wasn't at the Cape, nor Atlantis, nor a lunatic asylum for little green men with antennae. 1971‘H. Calvin’ Poison Chasers iii. 36 We been reading too many books about little green men from Mars. 1972Daily Tel. 25 Sept. 7/7 Neither he, nor I, believes that ‘little green men’ from Mars..are watching us and closely inspecting our planet.
1720T. Gordon Cordial Low Spirits 64 It was observed that all the while it [Treaty at Utrecht] was making, Her Ministry went frequently to the *Little House. 1789J. Parker in New England Hist. & Geneal. Reg. (1915) LXIX. 305 Charles worked on my Little house. 1796Wesley Wks. (1872) XII. 249, I particularly desire wherever you have preaching..that there may be a little-house. 1812W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XXXIII. 228 A privy is called a little house. 1939L. Mann Mountain Flat ii. 23 A gate led from the first yard into another in which were the pig sty, the hen-house, the tool-shed and what they called jocosely ‘the little house’. 1939F. Thompson Lark Rise i. 10 Later, the place of honour in the ‘little house’ was occupied by ‘Our Political Leaders’, two rows of portraits on one print. 1941Baker N.Z. Slang vi. 53 Other expressions..to make a sale, to vomit; little house, a privy;..poled for stolen.
1927Sunday Times 13 Feb. 5/1 This may not be pleasing to certain *little Irelanders who wish us to live in complete isolation.
1566in Peacock Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866) 46 Item a sepulker wth *litle Jack..litle Jack was broken in peces this yeare by the said churchwardens.
1890Dialect Notes I. 61 Big Dick: 10; *little Joe: 4. 1926T. S. Stribling Teeftallow viii. 67 The shooter..was half drunk,..chanting at each shot, ‘Come up, Little Joe! Don't deceive yo' pappy!’ 1968Scottish Daily Mail 16 July 2/1 If you throw crap dice and a combination of seven is showing on top, what is facing down?.. Little Joes?
1450–80tr. Secreta Secret. 35 Rebelle as a *litille kyng, obeyshaunt as a pekok.
1962Listener 24 May 920/2 Shaw had no use for the ‘*little mag’ mentality.
1900Book-Lover (San Francisco) Autumn (recto rear cover), To quote its publishers we may tell our friends Impressions is a *little magazine, simply done to tell the truth about books and other matters. 1913Writer's Mag. Oct. 140/1 The Black Cat externally is the same little magazine that it has been for years. 1926Atlantic Monthly Mar. 391/2 As these little magazines often contain only thirty-two pages, cost..two or three cents a copy to produce, and sell for fifteen..you can afford to dispense with advertisements. 1947Partisan Rev. XIV. 473 This group formally includes members of the faculties of the universities and the few writers in the larger cities who do independent critical work pitched beyond the level of commercialism. These find their outlet in the little magazines. 1952Times Lit. Suppl. 29 Aug. Suppl. p. xlvii, The birth of the Little Magazine may also now be seen in retrospect as heralding the decline of the greater. 1958Spectator 18 July 116/3 Little-magazine society. 1971Ann. Rep. Curators Bodl. Libr. 1969–70 39 Acquisitions in contemporary literature of the United States and the Commonwealth, including ‘little magazines’..continued. 1972Guardian 30 Aug. 8/2 Little magazines have been the pioneers of twentieth-century literature from Wyndham Lewis's Blast in the First World War to F. R. Leavis's Scrutiny in the thirties and forties and on to the present day.
1903Punch 14 Oct. 258/1 And what is the subject of the piece [Barrie's Little Mary]? Who is Little Mary? It is nobody: it is simply a nursery name that the child-doctor invents as a kind of polite equivalent to what children ordinarily allude to as their ‘tum-tum’. Ibid., Good-natured British audiences have strong *Little Maries. 1905Daily Chron. 8 Nov. 6/5 To wear it over their chest, not to speak of Little Mary, as people all now call their other danger spot. 1923U. L. Silberrad Lett. J. Armiter iv. 82 Then I get a cold in Little Mary, my vulnerable spot. 1933W. H. Harrison Humour in East End 18 ‘I've got a little Mary too!’ Swift as lightning came the reply, with a shrewd glance at a corpulent waistcoat: ‘Not arf yer ain't, guv-nor.’
1781N. Mundy Let. 21 Oct. in A. E. Newdigate-Newdegate Cheverels (1898) iii. 48 How very Ill poor *Little I am used kick'd quite out & not allowed room. 1818M. Edgeworth Let. 15 Oct. (1971) 126 Could I four years ago have believed if it had been prophecied to me that I poor little i should this day have been driving about London with Honora alone? 1895A. W. Pinero Second Mrs. Tanqueray iii. 111, I really thought you'd forgotten poor little me. 1899R. Whiteing No. 5 John St. xxx. 267 The wonder why the irresponsible..powers could not let ‘poor little me’ alone. 1913A. Bennett Regent i. iii. 68 ‘What about poor little me?’ cried the driver, who was evidently a ribald socialist. 1923E. Bowen Encounters 9 Nobody takes any notice of little me. 1961M. Beadle These Ruins are Inhabited (1963) ix. 124 A cold snap prompted the writing of some poor-little-me letters home. 1968A. Diment Bang Bang Birds viii. 149 He had had instructions from his bosses to liquidate little me.
1828M. Wilmot Let. 23 Apr. (1935) 316 Blanche..is the *little Mother of the house upon the occasion. 1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 333/1 Little Mother's Outfit... Contains..a ‘Little Mother's Fashion Book’, showing designs and directions for making dolls' dresses. 1967A. Wilson No Laughing Matter ii. 70 Sukey had better deal with them. She likes being the little mother.
1963Daily Tel. 18 Oct. 31/3 The committee will be among the first ‘*little Neddies’ set up under the auspices of the National Economic Development Council. 1964Economist 5 Dec. 1112/1 The ‘little Neds’ (the separate councils..for different industries). 1967Punch 24 May 766 The Little Neddy for the hotel and catering industry has just published the result of a survey it commissioned among foreign travel agents. 1969Times 13 Jan. 11/3 Even a small shift in the distribution of domestic resources could meet the needs of the expansion postulated by Little Neddy, provided the profits were already there.
1905*Little old [see money n. 6 a]. 1961C. Cockburn View from West vii. 71 Iceland..was menacing poor little old England in a truly devilish manner. 1966J. Potts Footsteps on Stairs (1967) xiv. 177 Why couldn't I have been looking out for little old me? 1968J. Sangster Touchfeather vi. 54 He wasn't carrying a gun, probably considering that with just little old me to look after he didn't need to. 1973A. Ross Dunfermline Affair 80 Askwith and Gibson made polite noises, but little old Abbie refused to dissemble. 1973Guardian 12 Mar. 9/1, I started at 15..and it was three or four years before I got a little old machine of my own.
[1913J. W. Riley Poems 9 Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay. 1924H. Gray in Daily News (N.Y.) (Pink ed.) 5 Aug. 26 (title of cartoon strip) Little Orphan Annie.] 1938D. Smith Dear Octopus i. 39 You stood there in the doorway..looking exactly like *little Orphan Annie. 1952M. Steen Phoenix Rising vi. 142, I won't have my friends..made uneasy by your bogey tales. You're worse than Little Orphant Annie! 1960Woman 20 Feb. 6/3 She cast herself in the rôle of Little Orphan Annie. 1965Newsweek 19 July 58/1 A Little Orphan Annie dress by Mary Quant or Caroline Charles will do, or for the male, a set of Mod threads. 1966M. G. Eberhart Witness at Large (1967) i. 13 You'll soon be out of a job, Little Orphan Annie. Ibid., It was true that I was in a position of Little Orphan Annie in my relationship to the Esseven family.
1619Notes B. Jonson's Convers. w. Drummond (Shaks. Soc. 1842) 23 Sir P. Sidneye's Mother, Leicester's sister, after she had the *litle pox, never shew herself in Court therafter bot masked.
1914(title) The *little review. 1958Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Jan. 37/3 As Mr. Granville Hicks has pointed out, the ‘little reviews’ themselves have become erudite, careful, critical not creative, moved more by the spirit of Sainte-Beuve than by that of Baudelaire.
1961A. M. Weinberg in Science 21 July 162/1 We must make Big Science flourish without..allowing it to trample *Little Science—that is, we must nurture small-scale excellence as carefully as we lavish gifts on large-scale spectaculars. 1963D. J. Price (title) Little science, big science. 1970Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 16 Aug. 22/2 Little Science changed into recognisable Big Science during the Second World War. 1972Science 9 June 1084/1 There is no question that for nearly every scientist the personal joys of little science are greater than those of big science.
1928Daily Tel. 3 Jan. 1/5 Lady Chamberlain's Tuesday afternoon At Homes at the Foreign Office..were one of the features of the ‘*little season’. 1938Burlington Mag. Feb. p. xvii/1 Highly successful sales..in the so-called ‘little season’ which ended just before Christmas. 1959J. Fleming Miss Bones xiv. 150 This..is the Little Season, as it's known. There are numerous Embassy parties..first nights at the theatres..and what have you.
1570Mary Q. of Scots Let. to C'tess Lennox 10 July in H. Campbell Love Lett. Mary (1824) 228 The transporting ȝoure *littil son and my onelie child in this country... I have born him,..and of ȝow he is descendit.
1771Smollett Humph. Cl. I. 246 His detestation of the mob..has prevented him from going to the *Little Theatre in the Hay-market. 1813Jane Austen Pride & Prej. III. ix. 166 London was rather thin, but however the little Theatre was open. 1912M. B. Leavitt 50 Yrs. Theatr. Managem. xxxvii. 574 ‘Little Theatres’ have for some time been playing important rôles in the dramatic life of Paris, Berlin and London. 1914Writer's Mag. Jan. 327/2 (caption) The ‘little’ theater movement expanding. 1916Stage Year Bk. 45 Another little theatre, the Portmanteau..opened its doors with a programme of one-act plays. 1929[see community theatre]. 1958Listener 21 Aug. 283/2 The shabby treatment accorded here to our little theatres. 1965E. O'Brien Aug. is Wicked Month ii. 22 She worked for a little theatre magazine. 1971Author LXXXII. 118 A trusting author, Mr. X, wrote a ‘philosophical’ conversation-piece which was staged at a London little theatre. 1973Philadelphia Inquirer (Today Suppl.) 7 Oct. 49/1 There is only one fully funded..little theatre in the Philadelphia area.
1934M. Allingham Death of Ghost i. 2 *Little Venice [on the Regent's Canal] in 1930... The room..took up the entire first floor of the old house on the canal. 1951D. Newton London West of Bars xxii. 323 Robert Browning, back from Italy, settled for a time in a tall house overlooking ‘Little Venice’. 1960C. MacInnes Mr. Love & Justice 21 Edward was sitting with his girl in the park at Little Venice, up by the Harrow road. 1968Guardian 12 July 20/6 The justices granted a provisional restaurant licence for two barges to be moored..near the lock of the Rochdale Canal... It was hoped this section of the canal..would become a Little Venice patronised by yachtsmen. 1970Ibid. 8 Aug. 7/3 It has taken a solid anniversary to bring the Little Venice Boat Show back to London... The anniversary signals the completion in 1820 of the Regent's Canal.
1907F. H. Burnett Shuttle xxiii. 229 *Little Willie's not quite as easy as he looks. 1915D. O. Barnett Let. 27 May (1915) 154 At intervals of about twenty minutes last night they fired a Little Willie on to our trench. Ibid. 8 June 166 Our fieldgun H.E. shell is a very fine thing, more powerful than the German one (otherwise known as Little Willie). 1925A. Christie Secret of Chimneys xii. 121 That some one unlatched the window..to make it look like an outside job—incidentally with me as Little Willie. 1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 304 Big and Little Willie, names given the Kaiser and German Crown Prince in a series of cartoons... The names soon..were applied to a variety of objects. For instance, two experimental tanks, which were begun on about August, 1915... ‘Little Willie’ first ‘moved’ on September 8th. 1927‘D. Yates’ Blind Corner iv. 125 ‘God give it's Little Willie,’ said Ellis, and sucked in his breath. ‘I'd like to meet him like this.’ 1965Brophy & Partridge Long Trail 145 Little Willie, Big Willie, the Crown Prince and the Kaiser. Journalese. So used occasionally by the troops, who applied the terms to all manner of things: e.g. a long-range naval gun operating on the Western Front.
1624J. Chamberlain Let. 20 Mar. (1939) II. 551, I send Dr. Bargraves sermon and the *litle womans worke for my Lady. 1795W. B. Stevens Jrnl. 18 Aug. (1965) iii. 280 The Little Woman's passions swell... She is expecting her Husband to be her Slave. 1801M. O'Connell Let. 6 Nov. in D. O'Connell Corr. (1972) I. 63 Complying with the earnest request of your little woman whose entire happiness is wrapped up in you. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho. (1853) xxxii. 314 My little woman will be looking for me, else. 1936‘R. West’ Thinking Reed viii. 262 We went off to a little woman who does manicures. 1959Sunday Express 26 July 10/5 I've..found a ‘little woman’—one of those treasures who will dressmake at home. 1970G. Greer Female Eunuch 286 Loving mockery of the little woman. 1973G. Greene Honorary Consul iv. i. 175 The material was quite inexpensive, and I had it run up by a little woman.
IV.
14. Comb. (chiefly parasynthetic), as little-footed, little-haired, little-headed, little-minded (whence little-mindedness), little-statured; little-bitty: see bitty a. 3; little-boy attrib., pertaining to, suited to, or resembling a small boy; infantile; so little-boyish a.; little-boy-lost: used (without hyphens) as a title of literary works by William Blake and other writers after him; attrib. or as adj. phr., resembling a small boy who has lost his way; also absol.; little boys' room (cf. little girls' room), a genteelism for a gentlemen's lavatory; little-endian a. and n., the designation of the orthodox party in the controversy in the state of Lilliput on the question at which end an egg should be opened (Swift Gulliver iv); hence used allusively; little-girl attrib., resembling or characteristic of a little girl, e.g. a type of collar, a voice; so little-girlish a.; little-girlhood, -girlishness; little-girl-lost (cf. little-boy-lost); little girls' room, a genteelism for a ladies' lavatory; † little-sight a., short-sighted; little-thrift, an unthrifty person.
1847Thackeray Van. Fair (1848) v. 39 Out of the *little-boy class into the middle-sized form. 1923D. H. Lawrence Stud. Classic Amer. Lit. (1924) vii. 143 Old-fashioned Nathaniel, with his little-boy charm. 1929― Phoenix II (1968) 537 Men..spend years training up the little-boy-baby-face type, till they've got her perfect. Then the moment they marry her, they want something else. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 68/2 The male tends to assume the little-boy role.
1955E. Blishen Roaring Boys iv. 182 Two faces, well-washed and *little-boyish. 1968H. Waugh 30 Manhattan East (1969) 149 That little-boy quality that wasn't little-boyish at all.
1789W. Blake Songs of Innocence in Compl. Writings (1972) 120 (title) The *little boy lost. 1905W. H. Hudson (title) A little boy lost. 1949M. Laski (title) Little boy lost. 1957R. Hoggart Uses of Literacy ix. 235 An appearance compounded of the metallically-cynical and the little-boy-lost. 1957Numbers VII. 4 The strand of dark hair..made him appear slightly dishevelled and rather little-boy-lost. 1961J. Pudney Thin Air viii. 95 The-little-boy-lost look..which..brought out the mother in most women. 1967V. Canning Python Project ix. 186 Having that little-boy-lost feeling and knowing that all the world is against you. 1973‘B. Mather’ Snowline iv. 51 He was beginning to realize his aloneness. Little boy lost in a big strange country.
1957A. Wilson Bit off Map 145 ‘Hullo,’ said Sylvia, ‘I expected Victor.’ ‘He's gone to the *little boy's room,’ said the girl. ‘He'll be back in a jiffy.’ 1973W. Fairchild Swiss Arrangement vi. 74 He bought me this jumbo cornet... I took it into the little boys' room with me... In case it started to melt while I was having a pee. 1973M. Woodhouse Blue Bone ii. 15 Rodway pulled up in a lay-by. ‘All out for the little boys' room,’ he said.
1832*Little endian [see big a. B. 2]. 1888Pall Mall G. 13 Sept. 11/1 A..controversy..between the Big-endians and the Little -endians of female attire.
1847Tennyson Princess ii. 118 She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique And *little-footed China.
1864C. M. Yonge Trial I. xiii. 263 Gertrude did not like people in the ‘*little girl’ stage. 1896E. Turner Little Larrikin xiii. 149 Isn't he a bit like your little-girl ideal man? When you were seventeen.. and had ideals? 1938Chatelaine July 27/1 Last year it was the Little Girl Look. 1939M. B. Picken Lang. Fashion 95/3 Little girl collar, narrow, round collar, smaller than Peter Pan or Buster Brown. 1949M. Miller Sure Thing (1950) 69 Her voice was a little-girl voice. 1967Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 5 Jan. (1970) 470 In came Lynda..wearing mesh hose and little-girl flat shoes.
1925‘R. Crompton’ Still—William viii. 134 His ideal of *little-girlhood was Joan, dark haired and dark-eyed and shy. 1945‘O. Malet’ My Bird Sings i. iv. 30 Camille, glad of her still unquestioned little-girlhood, kept out of the way.
1901A. F. Brown Lonesomest Doll 35 Clotilde soon became *little-girlish again. 1936C. Day Lewis Friendly Tree iv. 58 Anna felt absurdly obedient and little-girlish. 1962I. Murdoch Unofficial Rose xiii. 122 She spoke with a little-girlish satisfaction. 1974M. Higgins Changeling xiv. 75 You've done something to your hair..it's too little-girlish.
1936J. Curtis Gilt Kid v. 58 It was obvious that she was playing *little girlishness for all that she was worth. 1936C. Day Lewis Friendly Tree xiii. 190 You can be the *little girl lost, and I'll be the policeman who finds you. 1963Guardian 18 Jan. 4/6 Her little-girl-lost brand of charm. 1963‘G. Black’ Dragon for Christmas xi. 173 If ever there was a little girl lost it was Mei Lan. She had known love and the Kiangsi opera and had been cut off from both. 1974M. Higgins Changeling ix. 46 That little-girl-lost look you have.
1949M. Miller Sure Thing (1950) 267 ‘Look, where are you going?’ ‘To the *little girls' room.’ 1959P. H. Johnson Humbler Creation vi. 43 ‘I wonder where on earth she's gone?’.. ‘Probably to the little girls' room.’ 1975A. Thackeray One Way Ticket i. 10, I just saw Maggie disappear into the little girls' room.
14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 574/18 Comatulus, *lytyl heryd.
1670G. H. Hist. Cardinals ii. i. 122 Two sorry *little-headed Nephews.
1707Hearne Collect. 25 Oct. (O.H.S.) II. 66 This is *little minded. 1813Examiner 24 May 332/2 The little-minded vanity of a nation.
1824in Spir. Pub. Jrnls. (1825) 342 The *little-mindedness which shrinks from professional satire.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. vi. (1495) 112 An eye is *lytyll syght whiche seeth not well aferre.
1702Lond. Gaz. No. 3774/4 Went away from his Mother.., James Bristow, aged about 17 years, *little Statured.
1849James Woodman iv, They cannot be such idle *little-thrifts as you make them out.
B. absol. and n.
I. The adj. used absol.
1. Chiefly with the: Those that are little; little persons.
c1000Ags. Ps. (Th.) cxiv. 6 Drihten ᵹehealdeð dome þa lytlan. c1200Ormin 8002 Forrþi let he cwellenn þa Þe miccle & ec þe little. a1300Cursor M. 6551 Þai fled a-wai,..Littel and mikel, less and mare. c1400Destr. Troy 12058 Þe lordis to þo litill þe lyuys han grauntid. 1484Caxton Fables of æsop i. xiii, The lytyle ryght ofte may lette and trouble the grete. 1535Coverdale Judith xiii. 13 They came all to mete her, litle & greate. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables xvi. (1708) 21 The Great and the Little have Need one of Another.
2. the little: that which is little; the little qualities, characters, aspects, etc.
1791Cowper Yardley Oak 87 Comparing still The great and little of thy lot. 1806P. Wakefield Domestic Recreation vi. 80 The invention of man has not yet contrived glasses that comprehend either the vast or the little of nature. 1875Browning Aristoph. Apol. 5123 Little and Bad exist, are natural.
3. a. Not much; only a small amount or quantity: often preceded by but; admitting of being qualified by advs. of degree, as very, rather. little or nothing: hardly anything. † little is me of: I care little for. † to say little: to make no reply, to be silent. † within little: within a short distance of. to make or † let little of, set little by, etc.: see the verbs.
c1200Ormin 6480 Her iss litell oþerr nohht I þiss land off þatt sallfe. c1205Lay. 3465 Þe mon þe litul ah. a1225Juliana 26 Lutel is me of ower lufe. c1275Moral Ode 12 in O.E. Misc. 58 Al to muchel ich habbe i-spend to lutel i-leyd an horde. a1300Cursor M. 26997 Litel he sette be his life. 13..Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. (E.E.T.S.) 525/51 Ȝif þou haue luytel, luitel ȝiue and do. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 1459 Now haf we or litel, now pas we mesur. 1470–85Malory Arthur ix. iv. 344 Thenne she smote doun her heed and sayd lytel. a1533Ld. Berners Huon lxvi. 226 He dyd ete & drynke but lytell. 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 67 Though ye spent but lickell. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 9 Landed for a purpose at the pyle of Fowdrey within lytle of Lancastre. Ibid., Hen. VIII, 139 These wordes sore astonied sir Richard Weston, but he said litle. c1580J. Jeffere Bugbears iv. v. in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. (1897), Lyttle sayd, sone amended. 1611Bible Luke vii. 47 To whom litle is forgiuen, the same loueth litle. 1635R. N. Camden's Hist. Eliz. ii. an. 13. 124 It missed little but hee had been proscribed when he was dead. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. viii. (1840) 194 (Like me) he came from little at first. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. viii. Ballad viii, Man wants but little here below, Nor wants that little long. 1794Burns Song (first line), Contented wi' little, and cantie wi' mair. 1808Scott Marm. i. xxiv, Little he eats and long will wake. 1862Borrow Wild Wales II. xxvi. 295 He was a tall lanikin figure.., and upon the whole appeared to be good for very little. 1869Ruskin Q. of Air vii, The myth of a simple and ignorant race must necessarily mean little, because a simple and ignorant race have little to mean. 1881Med. Temp. Jrnl. XLIX. 31 We know little or nothing about the truth.
b. Const. of.
Now rare exc. when the context does not permit the use of little adj., e.g. when the n. is defined by a demonstrative adj. The use with an adj. used absol. (as in quots. 1824, 1833) is a Gallicism, and not in common use.
c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 921 That lord hath litel of discrecion, That in swich cas kan no diuision. c1400Mandeville (1839) xxv. 259 In that Kyngdom of Medee there ben many grete Hilles, and litille of pleyn Erthe. 1486Bk. St. Albans D iij, Off spare hawkes ther is chooce and lytill of charge of thaym. 1824Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1853 I. 221/1 There was little of sound and salutary which they did not derive from Democritus or from Pythagoras. 1833Moore Mem. VI. 337 [Stones like] those at Stonehenge..have but little of new or marvellous for him who has seen the rocks beyond the Atlantic. Mod. Of political sagacity he had very little. He showed little of the amiability which was ascribed to him.
†c. In the genitive depending on an indefinite pron., as what, somewhat. littles what, also what littles: little or nothing, a trifling quantity; in first quot., trifles. Obs.
a1100O.E. Chron. an. 1070 (Laud. MS.) Bec & mæsse hakeles & cantelcapas & reafes & swilce litles hwat. c1200Ormin 4681 For þatt tu muȝhe winnenn her Wiþþ sinne summwhatt littless. Ibid. 6952 Forrþi þatt teȝȝ..Ȝet unnderstodenn littlesswhatt Off all þe rihhte trowwþe. c1305St. Edmund 396 in E.E.P. (1862) 81 Hit was what lutles þat he et.
d. Qualified by a demonstrative or possessive: (The) little amount or quantity; (so) small a quantity, a (very) small amount, etc.
c893K. ælfred Oros. i. i. §17 Þæt lytle þæt he erede he erede mid horsan. a1240Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom. 265 Þis lutle ich habbe iseid of þat ich iseh in heouene. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. xlii. 325 This little may suffice touching the Bezaars stone. 1633P. Fletcher Poet. Misc. 71 My little fills my little-wishing minde. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 1000 If all I can will serve, That little which is left so to defend. 1738Johnson London 40 Ev'ry moment leaves my little less. 1789Burns Upon seeing a wounded hare, Go, live, poor wanderer of the wood and field, The bitter little that of life remains. 1842Tennyson Dora 50 Dora stored what little she could save. 1847Grote Greece (1862) III. xxix. 73 The little of his poems which remains. 1887Times (weekly ed.) 1 July 13/1 Lord S. spoke of the little..done for our coast defences during the last 20 years.
II. n. (With a or in pl.)
4. a. A small quantity, piece, portion; a small thing; a trifle.
c1220Bestiary 110 Naked falleð in ðe funt-fat, and cumeð ut al newe, buten a litel. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 347 Cristis apostlis..were not bisie about dymes, but helden hem paied on a litil, þat the puple ȝaf hem redily. c1400Destr. Troy 1449 Lo, how fortune..of a litill hath likyng a low for to kyndull. 1614Day Festivals ix. (1615) 267 Contemne not these littles, be they in truth never so little. 1631Fosbroke Solomons Charitie (1633) 7 Many littles, given unto many,..is better then much conferred upon one. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables cccclxviii. 443 A Man may be Happy with a Little, and Miserable in Abundance. 1846D. Jerrold St. Giles xxiii. (1851) 236 When a man's being shaved, what a little will make him laugh. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. xiv, A debt to pay off by littles.
Prov.1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. 50 Many a little, makes a mickle. 1791J. O'Keeffe Wild Oats v. iii. 64 It is'n't much, but every little helps. 1840Marryat Poor Jack xiii. 90 It's a very old saying, that every little helps. 1872S. Hale Lett. (1918) 84, I get fearfully tired, and a very little Abbey goes a long way with me. 1873‘Mark Twain’ in ‘Mark Twain’ & Warner Gilded Age xxiv. 226 Every little helps, you know. 1910E. M. Forster Howard's End xxiv. 201 Dolly's a good little woman..but a little of her goes a long way. 1936‘G. Orwell’ Let. 14 Feb. in Coll. Ess. (1968) I. 163, I expect I can either review it or get it reviewed... Not that that gives one much of a boost, but every little helps. 1951J. Masters Nightrunners Bengal i. i. 3 A little of Caroline Langford went a long way. 1967V. Canning Python Project iv. 63 Carry on. Every little helps. You might turn up something.
b. Const. of. (In early use with gen.)
For the restriction in mod. use see 3 b.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 336 Nim..hwerhwette niþewearde an lytel. c1200Ormin 4086 Þeȝȝ ummbeshærenn þeȝȝreshapp..A litell off þe fell aweȝȝ. c1205Lay. 30107 Wið an luttel ȝeren Þa uade[re]s dede weoren. c1450ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 68 Do a lytul þer of in þe sore eye. 1460–70Bk. Quintessence 21 Putte þerinne a litil of rubarbe or of summe oþer laxatiue. 1535Coverdale 1 Sam. xiv. 29 Se how lighte myne eyes are become, because I haue taisted a litle of this hony. 1616T. Godwin Moses & Aaron iii. (1641) 92 He drank a little of the wine. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 4 Architecture was perverted to meer house-building, where it retained not a litle of Vanbrugh. 1798Wolcot (P. Pindar) Tales of Hoy Wks. 1812 IV. 418 Not a bit of a Ballad..nor a little of a Tale to enliven the evening. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey v. xv, Let me recommend you a little of this pike! 1887Jrnl. Educ. Dec. 509 The ‘little of everything’ theory [of education].
c. Used advb.: To a little or slight extent; in a small degree; somewhat, rather. not a little, a good deal, extremely.
† a little of the biggest (quot. 1654): rather large.
1382Wyclif Heb. ii. 7 Thou hast maad him litil, a litil lesse fro aungelis. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 139 In þe ij day he openede a litil hise yȝen. 1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) i. ix. (1859) 7, I was comforted nought a litel. 1470–85Malory Arthur xvii. xvii, Thenne was not he a lytel sory for launcelot. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 104 b, Here must I a litle digresse. 1606G. W[oodcocke] Lives Emperors in Hist. Ivstine G g j, Although himselfe was of smal knowledge, and a little eloquent. 1611Bible Ps. ii. 12 When his wrath is kindled but a little. 1644Vicars God in Mount 147 All the enemies Horse began to shogge a little. 1654D. Osborne Lett. to Sir W. Temple (1888) 240 The ring, too, is very well, only a little of the biggest. 1722De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 159, I was a little afraid. 1847Marryat Childr. N. Forest xviii, We are not a little hungry, I can tell you. 1887Spectator 5 Nov. 1494 The Magazines are a little dull this month.
5. a. A short time or distance. Chiefly in after a little, for a little, in a little.
c1000Ags. Gosp. John xvi. 16 Nu ymbe alytel [Hatton an lytel] ᵹe me ne ᵹeseoð, & eft embe lytel ᵹe me ᵹeseoþ. 1610Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 266 For a little Follow, and doe me seruice. 1611Bible 2 Pet. ii. 18 They allure..those that were cleane [marg. Or, for a little, or a while] escaped from them who liue in errour. a1814Hector iii. ii. in New Brit. Theatre IV. 345 And death we all must in a little share. 1827Carlyle Germ. Rom. I. 293 In a little, he and Froda left the inn. 1881W. H. Mallock Rom. 19th Cent. II. 290 Be here then and we will go for a little into the garden.
b. Used advb. = For or at a short time or distance.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 93 Ȝe iherden a lutel er on þisse redunge þet ðe halie gast com ofer þa apostlas. c1200Ormin 3467 Forr aȝȝ itt flæt upp i þe lifft Biforenn hemm a litel. a1300Cursor M. 14327 Forgeten has þou son þi lare Þat i þe said a littel are. c1400Destr. Troy 8421 Lengye here at a litill, lystyn my wordes. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxii. 101 It rynnez into þe see a lytill fra þe citee. c1475Rauf Coilȝear 800 He lukit ane lytill him fra. a1533Ld. Berners Huon lxvi. 227 Let me slepe a lytell lenger. 1643Trapp Comm., Gen. xxii. 9 Mount Moriah..was a little from Salem, as mount Calvary also, was a little from Jerusalem. 1671Milton Samson 1 A little onward lend thy guiding hand To these dark steps, a little further on. 1702Rowe Tamerl. i. i, Yet, yet, a little and destructive Slaughter Shall rage around. 1794Cowper Moralizer corrected 21 In hope to bask a little yet. 1825Waterton Wand. S. Amer. i. i. 107 The tree which thou passedst but a little ago. 1842Tennyson Locksley Hall 1 Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet 'tis early morn.
†6. but a little = ‘but little’ (see 3). Obs.
With quot. 1377 cf. 1470–85 and 1548 in 3.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. ii. 188 Sothenesse seiȝ hym wel and seide but a litel. 1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 87 An aunswere which pleased Ferardo but a lyttle. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. ii. 61 Thou'dst thank me but a little. 1628T. Spencer Logick 146, I haue a little to say touching this fourth seate; for, I haue done enough in the last, to satisfie this.
III. Phrases, chiefly formed with prepositions.
7. Forming expressions, chiefly with repetition of little, having the sense: By small degrees; a little at a time; gradually.
a. by little and little; also † by little and by little, † by a little and (a) little.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. I. 358 Crist wole teche his disciplis bi litil and litil alle þes. 1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) v. i. (1859) 68 Alwey it decrecyd by a litel and a litel. 1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 243 Hit sholde not be sodaynly chaungid that wyche is custoumet, but slowly by lytill and by litill. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 112 b, And so by a litle and litle, the Englishmen recovered again many tounes. 1577Holinshed Chron. I. Hist. Eng. 112/2 By what wyles and craft he might by little and little settle here, and obteine a kingdome in the Ile. 1611Bible Exod. xxiii. 30. 1625 Bacon Ess., Atheism (Arb.) 337 Custome of Profane Scoffing in Holy Matters; which doth, by little and little, deface the Reuerence of Religion. 1682Dryden Relig. Laici Pref. 2 Their Descendants lost by little and little the Primitive and Purer Rites. a1774Goldsm. Hist. Greece I. 321 Both fleets arrived by little and little. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 105 Add, by little and little, as much pearl-ash..as it will take up. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. 243 All this we knew by little and little.
†b. a little and (a) little. Obs.
c1350Will. Palerne 950, I wol a litel and litel laskit in hast. 1482Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 23 Hys spyrite beganne a lytyll and a lytill to come ageyne. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 170 This great tumult and sodain fury, was..a litle and litle appeased and finally quenched. 1655Stapleton tr. Bede's Hist. Ch. Eng. 75 The companie of faithfull began a litle and litle to encrease againe. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. ix. (1840) 157 My ink..I eked out with water a little and a little, till it was so pale. 1751R. Paltock Peter Wilkins (1884) I. 50 Stowing them all close together to keep in the moisture, which served us to suck at for two days after, a little and a little at a time.
†c. little and little. Obs.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 302 Litel and litel þei may gete al þe rewme into here owene hondis. 1450–80tr. Secreta Secret. 33 He may not leve it attones, but litille and litille. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cxv. 138 And soo lytell and lytell, the dethe of Jaques Dartuell was forgoten. 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 67 Littell and littell the cat eateth the flickell. 1588Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 294 They shoulde haue a special care vnto their healthes, in trauelling not too fast but little and little.
d. little by little.
1483Cath. Angl. 218/2 Litylle be litille, diuisim, paulatim. 1586D. Rowland Lazarillo ii. (1672) Q 2 Weak and dead for hunger, I went little by little up the street. a1643Ld. Falkland, etc. Infallibility (1646) 16 How many things little by little may have been received under old names, which would not have been so at once under new ones. 1865Cornh. Mag. XI. 643 Little by little, the face of the country began to change. 1892Westcott Gospel of Life 272 Little by little, the revelation of Christ's Nature was made through the events of His intercourse with men.
†e. by (a) little. Obs.
1577Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1663) 171 Our affairs began by a little, and as it were by stealth, to grow unto some quiet state. 1579E. K. in Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Ep. Ded. §4 Young birdes..by little first proue theyr tender wyngs. 1647W. Browne Polex. ii. 178 That melancholy waxing away by little. 1763Ann. Reg., Char. etc. 106 Sift..more of the same sand by little upon it. a1814Love, Honor & Interest i. i. in New Brit. Theatre III. 263 Soon by little he began to droop.
†8. into (right) little: very nearly. Obs.
c1374Chaucer Troylus iv. 856 (884) For which we han so sorwed he and I That in-to litel boþe it hadde vs slawe. c1540Lady Bryan in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. App. lxxi. 173 It wil be (in to right little) as great Profit to the Kings Grace this way, as the t'other way.
†9. in a little: in a few words, briefly. Obs.
1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, ii. i. 11 But pray how past it? Ile tell you in a little.
10. in little: on a small scale; formerly esp. with reference to Painting = in miniature.
1597Shakes. Lover's Compl. 90 On his visage was in little drawne What largenesse thinkes in parradise was sawne. 1602― Ham. ii. ii. 384 [They] giue twenty, forty, an hundred Ducates a peece, for his picture in Little. 1635A. Stafford Fem. Glory 7, I shall endeavour to limme her soule in little (since in great neither my time, nor ability will let me). 1655Stanley Hist. Philos. iii. (1701) 119/1 The Temple was an imitation in little of that at Ephesus. 1724A. Collins Gr. Chr. Relig. Pref. 61 This autority was at first exercised in little by those, who [etc.]. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 171 Sir Kenelm Digby..compares Vandyck and Hoskins, and says the latter pleased the most, by painting in little. 1842Tennyson Gardener's Dau. 13 A miniature of loveliness, all grace Summ'd up and closed in little. 1873Browning Red Cott. Nt.-cap 137 By Boulevard friendships tempted to come taste How Paris lived again in little there.
C. adv.
1. a. To only a small extent; in only a slight quantity or degree; but slightly; not much, not very.
The use of the word to qualify adjs. (= ‘not very’) seems to be a Latinism or Gallicism, and has never been common.
c1000Ags. Ps. (Th.) cxviii. 87 Hio me lytle læs [L. paulominus] laþe woldan, ðisses eorð-weᵹes ende ᵹescrifan. c1200Ormin 3751 Þatt te birrþ..lætenn swiþe unnorneliȝ & litell off þe sellfenn. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 139 Þei loven to litil þe sheep. c1400Destr. Troy 13912 He drof at hym with þe dart, derit hym but litle. a1450Myrc 21 Luytel ys worthy þy prechynge Ȝef thow be of euyle lyuynge. 1484Caxton Fables of æsop ii. xvii, Who that preyseth hym self lytyll he is ful wyse. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 17 Remembryng the olde proverbe, love me litle and love me longe. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 82 They..intermeddle little in the ordinary government of the state. 1710Addison Tatler No. 192 ⁋2 They liked us as little as they did one another. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. iii, He..found that such friends as benefits had gathered round him were little estimable. 1812Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. 4 The most refined doctrines of this enlightened people were little more than a collection of vague speculations. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 161 A zeal little tempered by humanity or by common sense. 1876Gladstone Homeric Synchr. 126 But this is little material.
b. When, contrary to the usual order, little is placed before the vb. which it qualifies, it becomes an emphatic negative, as in he little knows = ‘he is very far from knowing’. This use is confined to the vbs. know, think, care, and synonyms of these.
c1200Moral Ode 137 in Trin. Coll. Hom. 224 Litel wot he hwat is pine. a1300Cursor M. 1834 Littel roght þam of his manance. a1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 227 b, They would littel thynk, that he would so untrewly handle me. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 86 They little know How dearly I abide that boast so vaine. 1802M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. xix. 164 He little imagined of how much consequence it might be. 1819Shelley Cenci v. iii, Little cares for a smile or a tear The clay-cold corpse upon the bier!
†2. A little time (before); for a little time. Obs.
c1200Ormin 463 Alls I seȝȝde nu littlær. a1225Leg. Kath. 1918 For me lauerd, Iesu Crist, mi deorewurðe leofmon, lutel ear me haueð ileaðet. a1300Cursor M. 14188 Ne was þou noght bot littel gan Almast þar wit þe juus slan? c1375Sc. Leg. Saints i. (Petrus) 549 Þe vilne..Þat lytil befor tholit he Of thame namyt of galele. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies vii. x. 523 The Mexicaines by this meanes, remained much eased and content, but it lasted little.
3. Comb., as little-able, little-heard-of, little-known, little-loved, little-travelled, little-used adjs.; little-bless v., nonce-wd., = Heb. bērēk (‘bless’ euphemistically for ‘curse’).
1825Coleridge Lett. Convers., etc. II. xlv. 225 May God bless you, and your *little-able but most sincere friend.
1610Broughton Job i. 5 It may be my children have sinned, and *little-blessed God in their hart.
1787Bentham Def. Usury i. 3 The..*little-heard-of offence of Maintenance.
1894Pop. Sci. Monthly June 162 That singular and *little-known people the Mosquito Indians.
a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1590) 102 Being ridde of this louing, but *little-loued company.
1889J. J. Hissey Tour in Phaeton 211 A *little-travelled land, this.
1900Everybody's Mag. III. 585/1 They went to the *little-used front door.
Add:[A.] [I.] [1.] [c.] (b) Also used in combination with place-names to denote somewhere which resembles or is reminiscent of the place mentioned, or which constitutes a ‘colony’ or microcosm of it (as a community of expatriates, immigrant quarter, etc.). See also *little England, little Venice, sense 13 below.
1749J. Cleland Mem. Woman Pleasure I. 134 But had it been a dungeon..his presence would have made it a little Versailles. 1822Weekly Reg. (York, Ontario) 20 June 92/3 We know of no place labled ‘Little York’, in Canada, and beg that he [sc. Mr. W. Patton] will bear that little circumstance in his recollection. 1909Webster s.v., L[ittle] Hungary, Italy, etc., the Hungarian, Italian, etc., quarter in a city;—so called in various cities of the United States. colloq. 1929H. Miles tr. Morand's Black Magic i. 46 The Negro quarter, ‘Little Africa’, as it is called. 1947H. A. Smith Lo, Former Egyptian i. 13 If you take a map of Illinois and draw a line east and west from Vincennes, Indiana, to St. Louis, Missouri, all that part of the state to the south of the line..is called Egypt or, sometimes, Little Egypt. 1971R. A. Carter Manhattan Primitive (1972) i. 14 Monroe Street, deep in Little Italy. 1989Wilson & Ferris Encycl. Southern Culture 439/1, Many of the migrants settled in separate neighborhoods called ‘little Oklahomas’, where they set up their own..churches.
[3.] b. Used as an (ironic) intensifier in various constructions intended to emphasize the following noun, as quite a little (..), a nice little (..), etc.; this little lot: see lot n. 9.
1861Sporting Rev. Oct. 249 Kettledrum's walk-over was quite a little tit-bit for the Yorkshiremen. 1891N. Gould Double Event xvi. 112 A nice little swindle you worked off on me that time. 1951J. D. Salinger Catcher in Rye xv. 127 ‘Who is this?’ she said. She was quite a little phoney. I'd already told her father who it was. 1984S. T. Warner One Thing 8 He..made a nice little profit on the transaction, having bought them off a white-elephant stall for eighteenpence apiece. 1992Daily Tel. 24 July 14/8 The Mercury Prize is worth {pstlg}20,000 to the winner. A nice little earner for Bheki Mseleku, Jah Wobble or even Primal Scream, no doubt, but small change to Mick Hucknall or Bono.
[8.] c. Applied, sometimes with connotations of social inferiority, to tradespeople, usu. ones who do work (esp. dressmaking) on commission. See also little man n. 2 a, little woman (b), sense 13 below.
1780Sheridan Sch. Scand. iv. iii. 54 'Tis a little French Milliner, who calls upon me sometimes. 1850‘L. Limner’ Christmas Comes 9 He seeks refuge in his organ, much to the annoyance of a little tailor in the attic who has no soul in him. 1857Mrs. Gaskell Let. 28 Sept. (1966) 476 Only last week a letter to a little dressmaker, living not a mile off..was returned to me by the Post Office. 1930E. H. Young Miss Mole xxvii. 239 Ethel's Chinese silk had been made up hastily by an obliging little dressmaker. 1957‘P. Portobello’ Deb's Mum 58 ‘I know a splendid little woman in Beauchamp Place’..‘There are two little men in Mavies Street, right up on the fourth floor’... Perhaps in a few more years the diminutive will be acknowledged in dictionaries to imply that, although the person so described may be six feet tall or weigh fourteen stone, he or she can clothe you at short notice and at a reasonable price. 1975P. Harcourt Fair Exchange i. 16 A little Italian dressmaker who ran up copies of dresses for next to nothing.
[III.] 13. little England, (a) in full, little England beyond Wales: the English-speaking area of Pembrokeshire (Dyfed); (b) a microcosm or ‘colony’ of England; (c) Barbados; (d) a derogatory term for the insular state supposedly advocated by Little Englanders.
1586W. Camden Brit. 373 (margin), *Little England beyond Wales. 1610P. Holland tr. Camden's Brit. i. 652 This tract was inhabited by Flemings..[and] is tearmed by the Britains Little England beyond Wales. 1802C. Wilmot Let. 30 July in Irish Peer (1920) 77 At present Paris is become a little England, 5000 is the calculation this last week. 1888E. Laws Hist. Little Eng. beyond Wales iii. 34 The English-speaking inhabitants of Pembrokeshire have for generations called their home ‘Little England beyond Wales’. 1890Farmer Slang I. 199/1 The island of Barbadoes..is also sometimes jeeringly called Little England. 1895J. Chamberlain Speech at Walsall 15 July in Times 16 July 10/2 Men who..were ‘Little England’ men, who took every opportunity of..criticizing those brave Englishmen who have made for us homes across the sea. 1925Observer 31 May 9/4 Pembrokeshire, the county which some call ‘Little England beyond Wales’. 1953G. Lamming In Castle of my Skin ii. 25 Barbados or Little England as it was called in the local school texts. 1963J. Mander (title) Great Britain or Little England? 1973'D. Jordan' Nile Green xiii. 56 An elderly bill-broker spoke up wearily for the cause of scepticism and Little England. 1989Independent 23 Dec. 52 Little England views about 1992 [were] being expressed by the proprietor... ‘English people don't like being told what to do, especially by the Frogs.’
little ice age Meteorol., a period of comparatively cold climate occurring between major glaciations; spec. (freq. with capital initials) the period of this kind which reached its peak during the 17th cent.; cf. neoglaciation n.
1939F. E. Matthes in Trans. Amer. Geophysical Union XX. 520 All of the glaciers of the latter class, however,..now have far greater extent and volume than they had during the middle third of the Post-Pleistocene interval, and accordingly it may well be said that we are living in an epoch of renewed but moderate glaciation—a ‘little ice age’, that already has lasted about 4000 years. 1957Science 1 Feb. 183/3 Matthes introduced the term Little Ice Age for an episode of renewed glaciation that began sometime after the driest part of postglacial time and culminated in or shortly before the 18th century a.d. 1975Nature 1 May 26/2 The cold period from 1450 to 1700, often called ‘the little ice age’, was not particularly cold at Crete or in Iceland. 1978Daily Tel. 8 May 11/6 Very cold periods, or ‘little ice ages’, seem to happen when the Sun is relatively quiet. 1988New Scientist 7 Apr. 55/1 Increased volcanic activity in the 1780s produced dust veils in the upper atmosphere which prolonged the Little Ice Age for decades.
▸ little-endian n. Computing (originally) a person who favours a design for computer hardware in which units of data (as bits within a byte or bytes within a multi-byte data type) are stored or transmitted with the least significant units stored at lower addresses or transmitted first; (later chiefly attrib. or as adj.) designating or relating to computer architecture designed in such a way (cf. big-endian n. and adj.).
1980D. Cohen On Holy Wars & a Plea for Peace (Internet Engineering Notes) (Electronic text) No. 127. 2 The *Little-Endians assign B0 to the LSB [= least-significant bit] of the words and B31 is the MSB [= most-significant bit]. 1989PC Mag. May 50/3 The Bswap byte-swap instruction re-orders the bytes in a 32-bit register from little-endian to big-endian byte ordering. 1993D. Libes Obfuscated C & Other Myst. 117 The least significant byte is stored at the same address as the integer on the 80x86 and VAX families. This is commonly referred to as little-endian addressing. 2003Personal Computer World Oct. 193/1 The next four bytes declare how many key mappings are to follow, including a final null value, so this will be equal to the number of actual mappings plus one. This is ‘little-endian’ so, assuming the number of mappings is 255 or fewer, just the first byte is used.
▸ Little Gem n. (more fully Little Gem lettuce) a variety of small, compact lettuce of the cos type, with crisp, deep green leaves.
1956P. M. Synge Dict. Gardening (Suppl.) 130/2 *Little Gem. The earliest, most compact and crisp Cos. 1982Financial Times (Nexis) 27 Feb. 11 My own favourite, Little Gem,..can be sown any time from March until the third week in June. 2005Olive July 60/1 Leave the iceberg lettuce on the shelf; English little gem makes the perfect crisp base for prawn cocktail.
▸ Little Italy n. † (a) (in form little Italy) a place or region considered to resemble Italy (obs.); (b) chiefly N. Amer. any urban district inhabited predominantly by Italian immigrants or people of Italian descent.
1762P. Murdoch tr. A. F. Büsching New Syst. Geogr. V. 391 Bamberg..near which also are such numbers of laurel, fig, lemon, and orange trees, that this spot is stiled, by some, the *little Italy of Germany. 1775S. Dobson tr. J. F. P. A. de Sade Life of Petrarch I. 49 This part of Gascony appeared a little Italy. 1885Bucks County (Pa.) Gaz. 9 July 2/3 Seventy-five or eighty ragpickers have been locked up.., and in Little Italy it is beginning to be understood that the health officers mean business. 1950J. Lait & L. Mortimer Chicago: Confidential ii. xxii. 174 Years during which the Mafia (Black Hand) flourished in Chicago in Little Italy. 2000N.Y. Times Mag. 15 Oct. 64/2 She lives in Manhattan's Little Italy, surrounded by trendy restaurants and fabulous boutiques.
▪ II. † ˈlittle, v. Obs. exc. poet.
Also 3 lutli, -i(e)n, littlin, 3–4 litelen, 4 littel, -yl, lutle, luttul, 5 lytil, -el, letil, lityll.
[OE. lýtlian, f. lýtel little a.]
1. a. trans. To make little, diminish; to reduce in size, amount, or importance. Also with away.
c888K. ælfred Boeth. xxix. §1 Þonne lytlað ðæt his anweald, & ecð his ermða. c1200Vices & Virtues (1888) 49 He litlede him seluen to-foren mannes eiȝen. a1250Owl & Night. 539 Oft ich singe for heom þe more For lutli sum of heore sore. a1300E.E. Psalter viii. 6 Þou liteled him a litel wight Lesse fra þine aungeles bright. a1325Prose Psalter xvii[i]. 46 Y shal littelel [sic] hem as poudre. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 423 Departing litliþ strengþe. c1400tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 85 Be it put vpon a softe fyr, to þe þrydde party be lytild away. a1483Liber Niger in Househ. Ord. (1790) 38 Nother Marshalls, nother usshers of hall..owe not to little or withdrawe any hole stuffe of fleshe or fyshe. 1642Rogers Naaman 75 Oh pray God to little the, to pare off thy superfluities. 1928Hardy Winter Words 194 Can littlest life beneath the sun More littled be? 1957A. Clarke Later Poems (1961) 61 Yet, littling by itself, I found one That had never run to town.
b. To belittle, extenuate (a sin).
a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 61 She [Eue] wende to haue lytelyd her synne. 1611W. Sclater Key (1629) 164 Paul stiles himselfe the chiefe of sinners, imputes the crucifying of Christ to the ignorance of the Iewes; so littleing a sinne more grieuous. 1627― Exp. 2 Thess. (1629) 291 Its natural to most, to litle their sins.
2. intr. To become little, be diminished; to dwindle, wane.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. John iii. 30 Hine ᵹedæfnað þætte auexe mec uutudlice þæt ic lytleᵹe [Ags. Gosp. waniᵹe, L. minui]. a1225St. Marher. 5 Ne his makelese lufsum lec ne mei neauer littlin ne aliggen. a1240Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom. 265 Of þulli blisse, þat hit ne me neauer mare lutlin ne wursin. c1325Old Age in Rel. Ant. II. 211, I werne, I lutle, ther-for I murne. a1375Joseph Arim. 145 His Godhede luttulde not þeiȝ he lowe lihte. c1491Chast. Goddes Chyld. 20 They lityll and deye by longe contynuaunce of ghostli siknesse.
Hence † ˈlittling vbl. n.
c1400tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 102 If he conseille þe to lytelynge of þi þinges þat þou hauys in tresour. |