small

Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.

Adjective

  1. Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.
    • A small serving of ice cream.
    • A small group.
    • Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on...

    Synonyms: little microscopic minuscule minute tiny

    Antonyms: big generous large ample cosmic bodacious broad commodious considerable expansive good-sized full giant grand great hefty hench immense jumbo larger than life largifical leviathan liberal long

    1. Humiliated or insignificant.

      • The bullies had succeeded in making him feel small.
      • For all the times that you made me feel small / I fell in love, now I feel nothing at all - 2015, Justin Bieber, Love Yourself:

      Synonyms: little microscopic minuscule minute tiny

      Antonyms: big generous large ample cosmic bodacious broad commodious considerable expansive good-sized full giant grand great hefty hench immense jumbo larger than life largifical leviathan liberal long

    2. Having a small penis, muscles, or other important body parts, regardless of overall body size.

      • (of genitals)
      • Though over six feet tall, the man was very small and ashamed to undress.

      Synonyms: little microscopic minuscule minute tiny under-endowed

      Antonyms: big generous large ample cosmic bodacious broad commodious considerable expansive good-sized full giant grand great hefty hench immense jumbo larger than life largifical leviathan liberal long

  2. Young, as a child.
    • Remember when the children were small?

    Synonyms: little wee young

    Antonyms: adult grown-up old

  3. Minuscule or lowercase, referring to written or printed letters.
    • "I've got catholic tastes. Catholic with a small "c", of course." - 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 584:

    Synonyms: lowercase minuscule

    Antonyms: big capital majuscule uppercase

  4. Evincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; paltry; mean.
    • A true delineation of the smallest man is capable of interesting the greatest man. - 1851, Thomas Carlyle, The Life of John Sterling:
  5. Not prolonged in duration; not extended in time; short.
    • a small space of time
  6. Synonym of little (“of an industry or institution(s) therein: operating on a small scale, unlike larger counterparts”).
    • small science

    Synonyms: little

  7. Slender, gracefully slim.
  8. That is small (the manufactured size).
    • I'll have a small coffee, thanks.

Origin

From Middle English smal, smale, small, smalle, smel, smæl, from Old English smæl (“narrow, slim; slender; fine; small; quiet”), from Proto-West Germanic *smal, from Proto-Germanic *smalaz (“small”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mal- (“small; little”). Cognates Cognate with Scots smaw (“small; minor”), Yola smaale, small (“small”), North Frisian smaal, smeel, smääl (“narrow”), Saterland Frisian smäl (“narrow”), West Frisian smel (“narrow”), Alemannic German schmaal (“narrow”), Bavarian schmoi (“narrow; slender”), Dutch smal (“narrow; small”), German schmal (“narrow; slender”), Low German small (“narrow; slender, small”), Luxembourgish schmuel (“narrow”), Vilamovian śmoł, šmoł (“narrow”), Yiddish שמאָל (shmol, “narrow”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish smal (“narrow; slim”), Gothic 𐍃𐌼𐌰𐌻𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃 (smalists, “smallest”); also Latin malus (“bad, distressing, nasty; evil,...

Forms

smaller smallest

Synonyms

compact fun size fun-sized ickle insignificant lit'l little low modest mini petty pint-sized pocket-size slim slight small small-scale undersized wee wurly

Antonyms

large

Hyponyms

short bitty diddy diminutive dinky eensy-weensy eeny-weeny incy wincy infinitesimal itsy-bitsy itty-bitty lilliputian micro microscopic miniature minnow minuscule minute negligible puny shrimpy teensy teentsy teensy-weensy

Related

nano- micro- mini- marginal minor -ette -ee -y size moderate

Derived

a small matter Baker's small-toothed harvest mouse besmall be thankful for small mercies better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness big fish in a small pond big things come in small packages caps and small caps don't sweat the small stuff double small pica ensmallen extra extra extra small extra extra small extra-small extra small good things come in small packages in no small measure in no small part in small doses it's a small world Khitan small script locally small nonsmall no small feat

Adverb

  1. In a small fashion
    • Don't write very small!
  2. In or into small pieces.
    • That's going to go in there. We've got some chives small chopped as well. - 2009, Ingrid Hoffman, CBS Early Morning for September 28, 2009 (transcription)
  3. To a small extent.
    • It small avails my mood. - 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, line 1273:
  4. In a low tone; softly.
    • That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and / you may speak as small as you will. - c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...

Forms

smaller smallest

Derived

writ small

Noun

  1. One of several common sizes to which an item may be manufactured, smaller than a medium.

    Synonyms: S

  2. An item labelled or denoted as being that size.
    • Two smalls and a large, please.
  3. One who fits an item of that size.
  4. Any part of something that is smaller or slimmer than the rest, now usually with anatomical reference to the back.
    • I got a splitting pain in the small of my back

Forms

smalls

Derived

small of the back

Verb

  1. To make little or less.
  2. To become small; to dwindle.
    • And smalled till she was nought at all. - 1917, Thomas Hardy, The Clock of the Years:

Forms

smalls smalling smalled