Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Peter Mark Roget

tenuity; paucity; fewness &c (small number) 103; meanness, insignificance (unimportance) 643; mediocrity, moderation. small quantity, modicum, trace, hint, minimum; vanishing point; material point, atom, particle, molecule, corpuscle, point, speck, dot, mote, jot, iota, ace; minutiae, details; look, thought, idea, soupcon, dab, dight†, whit, tittle, shade, shadow; spark, scintilla, gleam; touch, cast; grain, scruple, granule, globule, minim, sup, sip, sop, spice, drop, droplet, sprinkling, dash, morceau†, screed, smack, tinge, tincture; inch, patch, scantling, tatter, cantlet†, flitter, gobbet†, mite, bit, morsel, crumb, seed, fritter, shive†; snip, snippet; snick†, snack, snatch, slip, scrag†; chip, chipping; shiver, sliver, driblet, clipping, paring, shaving, hair. nutshell; thimbleful, spoonful, handful, capful, mouthful; fragment; fraction &c (part) 51; drop in the ocean. animalcule &c 193. trifle &c (unimportant thing) 643; mere nothing, next to nothing; hardly anything; just enough to swear by; the shadow of a shade. finiteness, finite quantity. V. be small &c adj.; lie in a nutshell. diminish &c (decrease) 36; (contract) 195. Adj. small, little; diminutive &c (small in size) 193; minute; fine; inconsiderable, paltry &c (unimportant) 643; faint &c (weak) 160; slender, light, slight, scanty, scant, limited; meager &c (insufficient) 640; sparing; few &c 103; low, so-so, middling, tolerable, no great shakes; below par, under par, below the mark; at a low ebb; halfway; moderate, modest; tender, subtle. inappreciable, evanescent, infinitesimal, homeopathic, very small; atomic, corpuscular, microscopic, molecular, subatomic. mere, simple, sheer, stark, bare; near run. dull, petty, shallow, stolid, ungifted, unintelligent. Adv. to a small extent [in a small degree], on a small scale; a little bit, a wee bit; slightly &c adj.; imperceptibly; miserably, wretchedly; insufficiently &c 640; imperfectly; faintly &c 160; 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 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 [Fr.], in ever so small a degree; thus far, pro tanto [It], within bounds, in a manner, after a fashion, so to speak. almost, nearly, well-nigh, short of, not quite, all but; near upon, close upon; peu s'en faut [Fr.], near the mark; within an ace of, within an inch of; on the brink of; scarcely, hardly, barely, only just, no more than. about [in an uncertain degree], thereabouts, somewhere about, nearly, say; be the same, be little more or less. no ways [in no degree], no way, no wise; 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. Phr. dare pondus idonea fumo [Lat.] [Persius]; magno conatu magnas nugas [Lat.] [Terence]; small sands the mountain, moments make the year [Young]. 2 QUANTITY BY COMPARISON WITH A SIMILAR OBJECT