Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class I. Words Expressing Abstract Relations
Section III. Quantity
2. Comparative Quantity
Quantity by Comparison with a Standard

32. Smallness.

   NOUN:SMALLNESS &c. adj.; littleness &c. (small size) [See Littleness]; tenuity; paucity; fewness &c. (small number) [See Fewness]; meanness, insignificance (unimportance) [See Unimportance]; mediocrity, moderation.
  SMALL QUANTITY, modicum, minimum; vanishing point; material point, atom, particle, electron, molecule, corpuscle, point, speck, dot, mote, jot, iota, ace; minutiæ, details; look, thought, idea, soupçon [F.], dab, dight [dial.], whit, tittle, shade, shadow; spark, scintilla, gleam; touch, cast; grain, scruple, granule, globule, minim, sup, sip, sop, spice, drop, droplet, sprinkling, dash, morceau [F.], screed [Scot.], smack, tinge, tincture; inch, patch, scantling, tatter, cantle, cantlet, flitter, gobbet, dole, mite, bit, morsel, crumb; scrap, shred, tag, splinter, rag; seed, fritter, shive; snip, snippet; snick, snack [dial.], snatch, slip; chip, chipping; shiver, sliver, driblet, clipping, paring, shaving, hair.
  nutshell; thimbleful, spoonful, handful, capful, mouthful; fragment; fraction (part) [See Part]; drop in the ocean.
  animalcule [See Littleness].
  TRIFLE &c. (unimportant thing) [See Unimportance]; mere nothing, next to nothing; hardly anything; just enough to swear by; the shadow of a shade.
  FINITENESS, finite quantity.
   VERB:BE SMALL &c. adj.; lie in a nutshell.
  DIMINISH (decrease) [See Nonincrease, Decrease], (contract) [See Contraction].
   ADJECTIVE:SMALL, little; diminutive &c. (small in size) [See Littleness]; minute, miniature, minikin; fine; inconsiderable, dribbling, paltry (unimportant) [See Unimportance]; faint (weak) [See Weakness]; slender, light, slight, scanty, scant, limited; meager (insufficient) [See Insufficiency]; sparing; few [See Fewness]; low; soso or so-so or so so [colloq.], middling, tolerable, no great shakes [slang]; below par, under par, below the mark, under the mark; at a low ebb; halfway; moderate, modest; tender, subtle.
  INAPPRECIABLE, evanescent, infinitesimal, homeopathic or homœopathic, very small; atomic, corpuscular, microscopic, molecular; skin-deep.
  MERE, simple, sheer, stark, bare; near run.
  DULL, petty, shallow, stolid, phlegmatic, unintelligent; Bœotian, ungifted [See Imbecility. Folly].
   ADVERB:[IN A SMALL DEGREE] to a small extent, on a small scale; a little, a wee bit; slightly &c. adj.; imperceptibly; miserably, wretchedly; insufficiently [See Insufficiency]; imperfectly; faintly [See Weakness]; passably, pretty well, well enough.
  [IN A CERTAIN OR LIMITED DEGREE] partially, in part; in a certain degree, to a certain degree; to a certain extent; comparatively; some, rather, middling [colloq.]; in some degree, in some measure; something, somewhat; simply, only, purely, merely; at least, at the least, at most, at the most; ever so little, as little as may be, tant soit peu [F.], in ever so small a degree; thus far, pro tanto [L.], within bounds, in a manner, after a fashion.
  ALMOST, nearly, well-nigh, short of, not quite, all but; near upon, close upon; peu s’en faut [F.], near the mark; within an ace of, within an inch of; on the brink of; scarcely, hardly, barely, only just, no more than.
  [IN AN UNCERTAIN DEGREE] about, thereabouts, somewhere about, nearly, say; be the same more or less, be the same little more or less.
  [IN NO DEGREE] noway or noways, nowise, not at all, not in the least, not a bit, not a bit of it, not a whit, not a jot, not a shadow; in no wise, in no respect; by no means, by no manner of means; on no account, at no hand.
   QUOTATIONS:

1. Dare pondus idonea fumo.—Persius
2. Magno conatu magnas nugas.—Terence
3. Small sands the mountain, moments make the year.—Young