little

adj

1. Small, not large, limited

   “This is a little table.”

2. Small, not large, limited

   “It’s only a little ways now.”

3. Small, not large, limited

   “I always feel better after a little sleep.”

4. Small, not large, limited

   “Where's the little boys' room?”

5. (especially)Small, not large, limited

   “You may be an Olympic weightlifter but you're still my little sister.”

6. Small, not large, limited

   “"You are a little, little man," she proclaimed, staring obviously below my waist as she pronounced the second "little." It was almost disappointing. I'd heard that one before, but it still left a new scar each time.”

7. Small, not large, limited

   “That's a mighty little herd you've got there.”

8. Small, not large, limited

   “It’s of little importance.”

   “Urania speaks with darken’d brow: ⁠‘Thou pratest here where thou art least; ⁠This faith has many a purer priest, And many an abler voice than thou: […]’”

9. (offensive)Small, not large, limited

   “Listen up, you little shit.”

10. (capitalized, often)Small, not large, limited

    “If you want to find Little France, take any turning on the north side of Leicester square, and wander in a zigzag fashion Oxford Streetwards. The Little is rather smokier and more squalid than the Great France upon the other side of the Manche.”

    “In the forties, hurdy-gurdy men could still be heard in all those East Coast cities with strong Italian neighbourhoods: New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston. A visit to Baltimore’s Little Italy at that time was like a trip to Italy itself.”

    ““The theatre was bought by the Croatian immigrants as so many immigrants came here in the ’30s and mostly for mining jobs, but in Schumacher itself it was called little Zagreb, and Zagreb is the capital city of Croatia. There were so many of them that they wanted to have their own little community, so they bought the theatre and they renovated it at that time, remodelled it and made it into a Croatian Hall,” she explained.”

11. (capitalized, derogatory, often)Small, not large, limited

    “He is the embodiment of Fleet Street bullying, using his newspaper to peddle his Little-England, curtain-twitching Alan Partridgesque view of the world, which manages to combine sanctimonious, pompous moralising and prurient, voyeuristic, judgmental obsession”

12. (derogatory)Small, not large, limited

    “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

    “The long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise, / Because their natures are little.”

    “Showing unmistakably what a little person he really was, in June 1949 he wrote his newly married daughter with nauseating disregard for the truth”

13. (capitalized, figuratively, often)Small, not large, limited

    “Little Science vs Big Science... Little Steel vs Big Steel...”

adv

1. Not much.

   “This is a little-known fact: the new model is little faster than the old one.”

   “She spoke little and listened less.”

   “We slept very little last night.”

   “Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to “Chat of the Social World,” gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl’s intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy—[…]—distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its flavor.”

2. Not at all.

   “Little did he know that the burglar was creeping upstairs at that very moment.”

   “She little knew what awaited her.”

   “But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window[…], and a ‘bead’ could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.”

det

1. Not much, only a little: only a small amount (of).

   “There is (very) little water left.”

   “We had very little to do.”

   “Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an “explosion.””

pron

1. Not much; not a large amount.

   “Little is known about his early life.”

noun

1. (singular, uncountable)A small amount.

   “I hope the little we've done will be useful.”

   “Little did he do to make me comfortable.”

   “If you want some cake, there’s a little in the refrigerator.”

   “Many littles make a mickle.”

2. (countable, informal)A child, particularly an infant.
3. (countable)An adult in a child-like role, or in the more junior of two paired roles.

   “He was there the night of Cristoph's party. All the littles were assigned to their bigs. Ian and Christoph had rushed the same fraternity. When they became upperclassmen, they both ended up on the board.”

   “She added that the relationship between bigs and littles is "what each pair makes of it," and that a lot of the pairs often get dinner together and become close friends.”

   “Some traditions of the chapter include lineages with bigs and littles, receiving of paddles from a big, and a national stroll, Wolsch-Gallia said.”

4. (countable)An adult in a child-like role, or in the more junior of two paired roles.
5. (countable)An adult in a child-like role, or in the more junior of two paired roles.

   “People with [dissociative identity] disorder frequently have a younger personality among their distinctive personalities. However, it’s believed that the "little" may not be a separate personality. Instead, it may be a regressed version of the original personality.”

6. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable)Ellipsis of little go (“type of examination”).

   “I go up for my Little tomorrow.”

name

1. (countable, uncountable)A characteristical surname.
2. (countable, uncountable)An unincorporated community in Breathitt County, Kentucky, United States, named after the local Little family.
3. (countable, uncountable)An unincorporated community in Tyler County, West Virginia, United States.