Definition of "small"

small

/smɔːl/

adjective
comparative smaller, superlative smallest
1. Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.
  Quotations
  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 the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
  Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.
  2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70
  1. Humiliated or insignificant.
    Quotations
    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
  2. Having a small penis, muscles, or other important body parts, regardless of overall body size.
2. (figuratively, incomparable) Young, as a child.
3. (writing, incomparable) Minuscule or lowercase, referring to written or printed letters.
  Quotations
  "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
4. Evincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; paltry; mean.
  Quotations
  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.
6. Synonym of little (“of an industry or institution(s) therein: operating on a small scale, unlike larger counterparts”)
7. (archaic) Slender, gracefully slim.
8. (especially clothing, food or drink) That is small (the manufactured size).
adverb
comparative smaller, superlative smallest
1. In a small fashion
2. In or into small pieces.
  Quotations
  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. (obsolete) To a small extent.
  Quotations
  It small avails my mood.
  1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], line 1273
4. (obsolete) In a low tone; softly.
  Quotations
  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, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii], line 49
noun
countable and uncountable, plural smalls
1. (uncountable, especially clothing, food or drink) One of several common sizes to which an item may be manufactured.
2. (countable, especially clothing, food or drink) An item labelled or denoted as being that size.
3. (countable, especially with respect to clothing) One who fits an item of that size.
4. (countable, rare) Any part of something that is smaller or slimmer than the rest, now usually with anatomical reference to the back.
verb
third-person singular simple present smalls, present participle smalling, simple past and past participle smalled
1. (obsolete, transitive) To make little or less.
2. (intransitive) To become small; to dwindle.
  Quotations
  And smalled till she was nought at all.
  1917, Thomas Hardy, The Clock of the Years

Definition of "small"

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noun

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