little sistern.

OE Ælfric Gram. (St. John's Oxf.) 17 Soror swustor, sororcula lytel swustor.

1483 W. Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende f. cccxxxvii/2 His lytel suster Florence [was] thenne also baptysed.

1590 R. Cotton Direct. to Waters of Lyfe To Rdr. sig. ¶3^v Yf you looke vnto the booke of God..you your selfe shall remayne no longer, as that lytle Syster which hath no brestes.

1611 Bible (King James) Song of Sol. viii. 8 We haue a little sister, and shee hath no breasts. View more context for this quotation

1664 T. Killigrew 2nd Pt. Thomaso v. v, in Comedies & Trag. 452 Have you lost a Sister, is it a great or little Sister?

1704 Acct. Admirable Conversion S. Howley 2 She got her little Brother and Sister into a Chamber with her, and told them of their Condition by Nature.

1792 W. Holloway Dovedell Hall 16 Her little sister gazed on the hapless narrator with sympathetic concern.

1847 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair (1848) xxxvii. 334 His little sisters, in whose welfare she still took the tenderest interest.

1876 C. 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.

1916 C. A. S. Creevy Daughter of Puritans xxviii. 128 Take a last look at your little sister, for God is calling her to Himself.

1949 R. Chandler (title) The little sister.

2004 J. Wilson Diamond Girls 67 OK, when you've stopped hitting on my little sister. Do you know how old she is? Twelve!

a1634 R. Chapman Hallelu-jah (1635) 42 The multitude of the Churches of Iewes and Gentiles, whose Originall is from the same shanke called a little sister.

a1683 Ld. Shaftesbury Eng. States-man (1688) (single sheet) (recto)/2 We have several little Sisters without Breasts, the French Protestant Churches, the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland.

1765 tr. Voltaire Philos. Dict. 294 What the church could mean by its little sister having no bubbies..is impenetrably obscure.

1826 Monthly Repository Dec. 720/2 Until the birth of its little sister, the Christian Reformer, the Repository was the only periodical work..in which the free discussion of religious subjects could be admitted.

1871 S. Warner Opportunities iv. 118 ‘I think Norton is making a little sister of you,’ Mrs. Laval said tenderly, drawing her hand down Matilda's cheek.

1940 G. 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.

1974 Country 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.

2004 A. Robbins Pledged 62 By the late 1980s universities had begun to abolish fraternity little sisters because of claims that the fraternities were sexually exploiting the girls.