tiny
/ˈtʌɪni
/adjective (tinier, tiniest)
Very small: a tiny hummingbird...
- The end result is that a tiny minority is allowed to lay claim to public opinion.
- Is this absence of black some kind of sad rebellion being staged within my tiny mind?
- They want to justify creaming off a tiny minority into the top first class institutions.
Synonyms
minute, small-scale, scaled-down, mini, baby, toy, pocket, fun-size, petite, dwarfish, knee-high, miniature, minuscule, microscopic, nanoscopic, infinitesimal, micro, diminutive, pocket-sized, reduced, Lilliputian;
trivial, trifling, negligible, insignificant, unimportant, minor, of no account, of no consequence, of no importance, not worth bothering about, not worth mentioning, inconsequential, minimal, inappreciable, imperceptible, nugatory, petty;
token, nominal;
paltry, inadequate, insufficient, meagre, derisory, pitiful, pathetic, miserable;
Scottish wee;
North American vest-pocket
informal teeny, teeny-weeny, teensy, teensy-weensy, weeny, itsy-bitsy, itty-bitty, eensy, eensy-weensy, tiddly, pint-sized, bite-sized, piddling, piffling, measly, mingy, poxy
British informal titchy
North American informal little-bitty, nickel-and-dime
noun (plural tinies) informal
A very young child: books that will make tinies and parents laugh out loud...
- In the Troupe of the Year awards, which were given out at the same event, the babies came third, the dinkies came fifth, the tinies finished fourth and the juniors came fifth.
- Chav parents get the child benefits and the free accommodation without even having to pretend to raise their offspring, the State and the social-workers get lots of tinies to try out their theories on.
- Before the afternoon was out, a class of tinies had a new and uproarious catchphrase.
Derivatives
tinily
- His summers here were spent in continual battle with loosening shingles, hidden leaks, rotting wood, and creeping damp; as the house struggled purposefully to return to the earth, he struggled tinily to prevent it.
- Even then, Athena just smiled tinily at him, then went back to her business.
- While making strange contrasts, everything is entangled tinily, and grandiosly, like in the childhood memories when reality seems to be glittering full if vivid colours.
tininess
- We'd all sat down at the enormous round table by the time she arrived, eleven of us, chattering away, and she arrived, this tiny white-haired lady, and nestled into a space next my brother, exaggerating her tininess.
- Twenty-five years later, both these men were at this dinner party, which gives you an idea of the tininess of this world.
- A certain homespun, unassuming, untidy tininess had become a virtue in itself.
Origin
Late 16th century: extension of obsolete tine, 'small, diminutive', of unknown origin.