minus
/ˈmʌɪnəs
/preposition
1With the subtraction of: what’s ninety three minus seven?...
- One profit measure was net farm income from operations, calculated as total revenues minus total costs.
- However, its gross profit margins - revenues minus the cost of manufacturing goods - were lower than expected.
- The credit is equal to the lesser of 7.5 percent of the cost minus any government financial incentives or $4.50 per rated watt of the system.
1.1 informal Lacking; deprived of: he was minus a finger on each hand...
- In the spring, Blackburn returned to an astonished Gloucester, minus his fingers, half of each thumb, and most of his toes.
- It's as though he's desperate to fool us into thinking we're watching a Hollywood action flick minus machine gun fire, explosions, and fast cars.
- Lots of pink neon and bluish glass brick, it had the feel of a fancy health spa minus the weight machines or half the lightbulbs.
2(Of temperature) below zero by: minus 40 degrees centigrade...
- Bills for winter heating came to 200 for gas during a particularly cold month last year when temperatures dropped below minus 20 degrees.
- At temperatures below minus 5 degrees Celsius in heavy snow, small debris and snow can pack around the warm saw motor and form a solid ice pack.
- This is a major problem as the winter temperature drops below minus 10 degrees at night.
adjective
1(Before a number) below zero; negative: minus five...
- This brings Limerick West fractionally above the minus five per cent limit.
- Zero and minus one John Dillon Street, are the unusual addresses for the pair of semi-detached town houses, both a modest 1,200 sq ft.
- So why can't we devise a mathematical system that allows two plus two to equal seventeen, ten to equal zero and the square root of two to equal minus three?
2(After a grade) rather worse than: C minus...
- In fact, all the minus grades (A-, B-, C-) had relatively low graduation rates.
- Emergency medical care in the USA rates a C-minus, with hospitals increasingly facing overcrowding, a lack of financial support and a growing number of uninsured patients.
3Having a negative electric charge.What texts don't usually tell you is that charges both plus and minus attract uncharged things....
- A quark has an electric charge of plus or minus one-third or plus or minus two-thirds; so when two are combined they add up to plus one, minus one, or zero.
noun
1 short for minus sign.Specifying a plus or minus before a number allows relative positioning....
- A minus in front of a number indicates an outflow of funds.
2A disadvantage: for every plus with this equipment there can be a minus...
- The two surveys have different pluses and minuses and, in my analysis of the labor market, I give weight to both.
- As Els has pointed out, doing what he is currently doing has no minuses and many positives for all concerned.
- The discrepancy stems, in part, from the different methodologies - both of which have their pluses and minuses, researchers say.
Phrases
on the minus side
Origin
Late 15th century: from Latin, neuter of minor 'less'.