less

From Middle English, from Old English lǣs (adverb) and lǣssa (adjective), from Proto-Germanic *laisiz.

• IPA^(key): /lɛs/

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• Rhymes: -ɛs

less (not comparable)

1. To a smaller extent.
   • 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

     In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.

2. In lower degree.

   This is a less bad solution than I thought possible.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:

     I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎:

     That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past.

• more

less (superlative least)

1. (now archaic except with numbers) comparative form of little: more little; smaller, lesser. [from 11th c.]
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, page 141:

     Those Rattels are somewhat like the chape of a Rapier, but lesse, which they take from the taile of a snake.

   • Edward James Reed, A Treatise on the Stability of Ships

     It is also easy to see that the straight line, representing the locus of centres of buoyancy for a rectangular section, must lie at a less inclination to the base (i.e., to the horizontal) than a line representing the locus of such centres for a parabolic section […]

2. comparative form of little: more little: a smaller amount (of); not as much. [from 14th c.]
   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 206-7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

   I have less than you have.  I have less tea than coffee.

3. (sometimes proscribed) comparative form of few: more few: fewer; a smaller number of. [from 9th c.]
   • 1952, Thomas M Pryor, New York Times, 7 Sep 1952:

     This is not a happy situation as far as the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes is concerned because it means less jobs for the union's members here at home.

   • 1999, George RR Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam 2011, page 555:

     No less than four standard-bearers went before them, carrying huge crimson banners emblazoned with the golden lion.

   • 2003, Timandra Harkness, The Guardian, 16 Dec 2003:

     Although my hosts, G S Aviation, can teach you to fly in Wiltshire, an intensive week at their French airfield means less problems with the weather, cheap but good living, and complete removal from any distractions.

Some^[*] regard the use of the determiner less with countable quantities to be incorrect, stating that less should indicate only a reduction in uncountable quantity, or in size or significance, leaving fewer to indicate a smaller numerical quantity. For example, we should say less sugar, but fewer people, not *less people. Such a rule also allows distinctions such as:

• Their troubles are fewer than ours, meaning "Their troubles are not so numerous as ours."
• Their troubles are less than ours, meaning "Their troubles are not so great as ours."

Nevertheless, less has been widely understood and commonly used as a synonym for fewer since it first appeared in Old English as læs.

• more

• fewer
• lesser

less

1. Minus; not including

   It should then tax all of that as personal income, less the proportion of the car's annual mileage demonstrably clocked up on company business.

• plus

less (third-person singular simple present lesses, present participle lessing, simple past and past participle lessed)

1. (obsolete) To make less; to lessen.
   • Gower, Confessio Amantis

     What he will make lesse, he lesseth.

less

1. (obsolete) unless

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)

• “less” in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary.
• “less” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

• ELSS, SLEs

les +‎ -j

• IPA^(key): [ˈlɛʃː]
• Hyphenation: less

less

1. second-person singular subjunctive present indefinite of les

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛsː/

less m (invariable)

1. boiled meat

• IPA^(key): /lɛss/

less m inan

1. loess

• lessowy

Clipping of lessen, pronunciation spelling of ledsen (“sad”), alternatively interpreted as a pronunciation spelling of a clipping of ledsen.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛsː/

less (comparative mer less, superlative mest less)

1. fed up, done

   Jag är less på hand jävla tjat!

   I'm fed up with his god damn nagging!

Only used with the common gender singular, comparated periphrastically, only used predicatively.