Definition of "mite"

One mite wrung from the lab'rer's handsShall buy and sell the miser's lands;

1803, William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing — and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite — that is all he did.

1903 March 17, Mark Twain, letter to Helen Keller

"Well," I says, "I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough." She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D. Appleton and Company; republished New York, N.Y., London: D. Appleton and Company, 1914, pages 124–125

"Silas, now," Esther Whitley had said, "would be a good one for you, Hannah. He's a mite on the old side, but he's steady, an' he's been wed before. He knows the ways of a woman better'n some."

1956, Janice Holt Giles, chapter 8, in Hannah Fowler, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin; republished Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1992, page 69

Those trousers are a mite too big, but you'll soon grow into them.

1959, Frances Cavanah, Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance, Chicago, Ill.: Rand McNally; Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance (ReadHowYouWant Classics Library), EasyRead large edition, U.S.A.: ReadHowYouWant, 2008, page 30

“Tom told me that, but twasn't your fault, the little mite just couldn't wait to be born that's all.” A small smile played on Leah's lips.

2014, Lorraine F Elli, The Little Town Mouse