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LITTLENESS
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lack of generosity in trifling matters
Synonyms:
littleness; pettiness; smallness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("littleness" is a kind of...):
closeness; meanness; minginess; niggardliness; niggardness; parsimoniousness; parsimony; tightfistedness; tightness (extreme stinginess)
Derivation:
little ((informal) small and of little importance)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The property of having relatively little strength or vigor
Example:
the smallness of her voice
Synonyms:
littleness; smallness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("littleness" is a kind of...):
weakness (the property of lacking physical or mental strength; liability to failure under pressure or stress or strain)
Derivation:
little ((of a voice) faint)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The property of having a relatively small size
Synonyms:
littleness; smallness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("littleness" is a kind of...):
size (the physical magnitude of something (how big it is))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "littleness"):
diminutiveness; minuteness; petiteness; tininess; weeness (the property of being very small in size)
delicacy; slightness (smallness of stature)
grain (the smallest possible unit of anything)
puniness; runtiness; stuntedness; dwarfishness (smallness of stature)
Antonym:
bigness (the property of having a relatively great size)
Derivation:
little (limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent)
Context examples:
They would not allow me to be a dwarf, because my littleness was beyond all degrees of comparison; for the queen’s favourite dwarf, the smallest ever known in that kingdom, was near thirty feet high.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
For, although he queen had ordered a little equipage of all things necessary for me, while I was in her service, yet my ideas were wholly taken up with what I saw on every side of me, and I winked at my own littleness, as people do at their own faults.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Nothing angered and mortified me so much as the queen’s dwarf; who being of the lowest stature that was ever in that country (for I verily think he was not full thirty feet high), became so insolent at seeing a creature so much beneath him, that he would always affect to swagger and look big as he passed by me in the queen’s antechamber, while I was standing on some table talking with the lords or ladies of the court, and he seldom failed of a smart word or two upon my littleness; against which I could only revenge myself by calling him brother, challenging him to wrestle, and such repartees as are usually in the mouths of court pages.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
