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SMALLNESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
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 ("smallness" is a kind of...):
closeness; meanness; minginess; niggardliness; niggardness; parsimoniousness; parsimony; tightfistedness; tightness (extreme stinginess)
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 ("smallness" is a kind of...):
weakness (the property of lacking physical or mental strength; liability to failure under pressure or stress or strain)
Derivation:
small ((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 ("smallness" is a kind of...):
size (the physical magnitude of something (how big it is))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "smallness"):
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:
largeness (the property of having a relatively great size)
Derivation:
small (limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent)
small (relatively moderate, limited, or small)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The property of being a relatively small amount
Example:
he was attracted by the smallness of the taxes
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("smallness" is a kind of...):
amount (the relative magnitude of something with reference to a criterion)
Derivation:
small (limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent)
small (not large but sufficient in size or amount)
Context examples:
It seemed to me that I was realizing for the first time what a delicate, fragile creature a woman is; and as I caught her arm to help her down the companion stairs, I was startled by its smallness and softness.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The smallness of the house and thinness of the walls brought everything so close to her, that, added to the fatigue of her journey, and all her recent agitation, she hardly knew how to bear it.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Perhaps just at present he may be undecided; the smallness of your fortune may make him hang back; his friends may all advise him against it.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
The East room, as it had been called ever since Maria Bertram was sixteen, was now considered Fanny's, almost as decidedly as the white attic: the smallness of the one making the use of the other so evidently reasonable that the Miss Bertrams, with every superiority in their own apartments which their own sense of superiority could demand, were entirely approving it; and Mrs. Norris, having stipulated for there never being a fire in it on Fanny's account, was tolerably resigned to her having the use of what nobody else wanted, though the terms in which she sometimes spoke of the indulgence seemed to imply that it was the best room in the house.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
