little worldn.

c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 17597 Mycrocossmos. þatt nemnedd iss. Affterr ennglisshe spæche. Þe little werelld.

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) Prol. l. 957 Man..Is as a world..And whan this litel world mistormeþ [read mistorneþ], The grete world al overtorneth.

c1450 tr. Secreta Secret. (Royal) 35 The philesofre callith man the litille world.

?1517 Kalender of Shepeherdes (new ed.) sig. Lviij He is called the lytel worlde, for he partycypeth of all.

1587 R. Greene Euphues sig. H3 This citty was Microcosmos, a little Worlde, in respect of the Cytties of Greece.

1603 H. Crosse Vertues Common-wealth sig. Q4^v If the bodie be not set on worke, the minde goeth astray, whereby this litle world is soone ouerthrowne.

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear viii. 9 Striues in his little world of man to outscorne, The..wind. View more context for this quotation

a1657 G. Daniel Trinarchodia: Henry IV cclix, in Poems (1878) IV. 65 The Little World thus Circumscribes a Nation.

1735 Visct. Bolingbroke Diss. upon Parties (ed. 2) xii. 141 There have been Ages of Gold, and of Silver, of Brass and of Iron, in our little World, as in the great World.

1788 M. Wollstonecraft Let. 22 Mar. (2003) 152 Sheer love of knowledge..has ever been a predominate mover in my little world.

1845 C. Darwin Jrnl. (ed. 2) xvii. 377 The archipelago is a little world within itself.

1876 Westm. Rev. 49 361 The novelist proper studies to represent his little world as the great world is.

1920 C. Carswell Open Door! i. vi. 87 It was a little world to itself, shut in and stuporose.

1984 D. Cupitt Sea of Faith ii. 40 He [sc. medieval man] was the microcosm of Creation, the little world.

2005 Z. Smith On Beauty 63 It's like, ‘being street’, knowing the streets—in Levi's sad little world if you're a Negro you have some kind of mysterious holy communion with sidewalks and corners.