Definition of "jot"

This bond doth giue thee here no iote of blood, / The vvords expreſly are a pound of fleſh: / Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of fleſh, / But in the cutting of it, if thou doſt ſhed / One drop of Chriſtian blood, thy lands and goods / Are by the lavves of Venice, confiſcate / Vnto the State of Venice.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i], page 196

For verily I ſay vnto you, Till heauen and earth paſſe, one iote or one tittle, ſhall in no wiſe paſſe from the law, till all be fulfilled.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Matthew 5:18, column 1

Of old, men said, "Sin not; / By every line and jot / Ye shall abide; man's heart is false and vile."

1904, Bliss Carman, “Christmas Eve at St. Kavin’s”, in Songs from a Northern Garden (Pipes of Pan; no. 4), Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, page 107

Sir, the People muſt haue their Voiyes, / Neyther vvill they bate / One iot of Ceremonie.

c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii], page 11, column 2

After this I ſpent a great deal of Time and Pains to make me an Umbrella; I vvas indeed in great vvant of one, and had a great mind to make one; I had ſeen them made in the Braſils, vvhere they are very uſeful in the great Heats vvhich are there: And I felt the Heats every jot as great here, and greater too, being nearer the Equinox; […]

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, page 159

[T]hough Richard [III] vvas purſued and killed as a uſurper, the Solomon that ſucceeded him [Henry VII of England], vvas not a jot leſs a tyrant.

1768, Horace Walpole, “The Murder of His Brother Clarence”, in Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley […], page 31

"If they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside," cried Bingley, "it would not make them one jot less agreeable."

1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], page 79

For mark you, Tavy, the artist’s work is to show us ourselves as we really are. Our minds are nothing but this knowledge of ourselves; and he who adds a jot to such knowledge creates new mind as surely as any woman creates new men.

1901–1903, [George] Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman. A Comedy and a Philosophy, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, Act I, page 23

What does that matter? Arsenic would put poor Emily out of the way just as well as strychnine. If I'm convinced he did it, it doesn't matter a jot to me how he did it.

1920 October, Agatha Christie, “Fresh Suspicions”, in The Mysterious Affair at Styles […], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, published March 1927, pages 182–183

"Lover," you say; "how beautiful that is, / That little word!” […] / Yes, it is beautiful. I have marked it long, / Long in my dusty head its jot secreted, / Yet my heart never knew this word a song / Till in the night softly by you repeated.

1920, Robert Nichols, “Sonnets to Aurelia [Sonnet IV]”, in Aurelia & Other Poems, London: Chatto & Windus, page 29

He mentions as certain the falsehood of a number of the assertions concerning his usage, the unhealthy state of the island, and so forth. I have jotted down his evidence elsewhere.

1827 February 12 (date written), Walter Scott, “”, in David Douglas, editor, The Journal of Sir Walter Scott […], volume I, Edinburgh: David Douglas, published 1890, page 357

Nowe is iuſte iuſtice, ſo iotted out of iointe, / That ye here vniuſtely, ſtande at deniall, / To do me iuſtice, and wolde by power ryall: / Directe mine acquitall or condemnacion, / Euen as wyll in both: weith your acceptacion.

1556, John Heywood, chapter 24, in The Spider and the Flie. […], London: […] Tho[mas] Powell; republished as A[dolphus] W[illiam] Ward, editor, The Spider and the Flie. […] (Publications of the Spenser Society, New Series; 6), Manchester: […] [Charles E. Simms] for the Spenser Society, 1894, page 110

[F]requent jot / Of his hard ſetting jade did ſo confound / The vvords that he by papyr-ſtealth had got, / That their loſt ſenſe the youngſter could not ſound, / Though he vvith mimical attention did abound.Jade here refers to “a horse too old to be put to work”.

1640 (date written), H[enry] M[ore], “ΨΥΧΟΖΩΙΑ [Psychozōia], or A Christiano-platonicall Display of Life, […]”, in ΨΥΧΩΔΙΑ [Psychōdia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Song of the Soul, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie, published 1642, book 2, stanza 47, page 26

[…] I ſay it is no uneven jot, to paſſe from the more faint and obſcure examples of Spermaticall life, to the more conſiderable effects of generall Motion in Mineralls, Metalls & ſundry Meteors, […]

1653, Henry More, chapter XII, in An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], book I, page 61