a mite
English
WOTD – 25 June 2019
Etymology
a + mite (“minute arachnid of the order Acarina; anything very small, a minute object, a very little quantity or particle”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ə ˈmaɪt/
- Rhymes: -aɪt
Adverb
- (informal) To a small extent; in a small amount; rather.
- [1870], [Frederick William Robinson], “The Young Guardian”, in Owen:—A Waif (Select Library of Fiction), new edition, London: Chapman and Hall, […], OCLC 13655647, book III (Battle-ground), page 117:
- "I hope Mary has been the best of girls?" / "The bestest little girl, Sir—a mite too lively, perhaps, especially when she hears you're coming to see her, […].["]
- 1956, Janice Holt Giles, chapter 8, in Hannah Fowler, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, OCLC 937953041; republished Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1992, →ISBN, page 69:
- "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."
- 1959, Frances Cavanah, Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance, Chicago, Ill.: Rand McNally, OCLC 1039439343; Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance (ReadHowYouWant Classics Library), EasyRead large edition, U.S.A.: ReadHowYouWant, 2008, →ISBN, page 30:
- Those trousers are a mite too big, but you'll soon grow into them.
- 2018 November 29, Brian Taylor, “Brexit and sellers of fish”, in BBC News:
- Words, words, words, bemoans Hamlet, in conversation with the garrulous but inconsequential Polonius, whom he labels a "seller of fish". Given that the Prince of Denmark is himself legendary for vacillation and inaction, this always seemed a mite cheeky to me.
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Translations
to a small extent — see a little
Further reading
- “a mite” in the Collins English Dictionary, Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers.
- “a mite” (US) / “a mite” (UK) in Macmillan Dictionary
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