small

• (UK)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /smɔːl/

  • Audio (UK): [smoːw]

    (file)

• Audio

  (file)

  • Rhymes: -ɔːl
• (US)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /smɔl/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /smɑl/

  • Audio (US): [smɑɫ]

    (file)

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /smɑl/
• (General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /smoːl/

From Middle English smal, from Old English smæl (“small, narrow, slender”), from Proto-Germanic *smalaz (“small”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mal-, *(s)mel- (“small, mean, malicious”). Cognate with Scots smal; sma (“small”); West Frisian smel (“narrow”); Dutch smal (“narrow”); German schmal (“narrow, small”); Danish, Norwegian, Swedish smal (“narrow; thin; slender”); Latin malus (“bad”); Russian ма́лый (mályj, “small”).

small (comparative smaller, superlative smallest)

1. Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.

   • 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:

     Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.

   A small serving of ice cream.

   A small group.

   He made us all feel small.

2. (figuratively) Young, as a child.

   Remember when the children were small?

3. (writing, incomparable) Minuscule or lowercase, referring to written letters.
4. Envincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; paltry; mean.
   • Carlyle

     A true delineation of the smallest man is capable of interesting the greatest man.

5. Not prolonged in duration; not extended in time; short.

   a small space of time

• (not large or big): little, microscopic, minuscule, minute, tiny; see also Thesaurus:tiny
• (young, as a child): little, wee (Scottish), young
• (of written letters): lowercase, minuscule

• See also Thesaurus:large
• (not large or big): capital, big, generous (said of an amount of something given), large
• (young, as a child): adult, grown-up, old
• (of written letters): big, capital, majuscule, uppercase

small (comparative smaller, superlative smallest)

1. In a small fashion.
   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I, scene 2, line 49:

     That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and / you may speak as small as you will.

2. In or into small pieces.
   • 2009, Ingrid Hoffman, CBS Early Morning for September 28, 2009 (transcription)

     That's going to go in there. We've got some chives small chopped as well.

3. (obsolete) To a small extent.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare, Sonnets, "Lucrece", line 1273

     It small avails my mood.

• writ small

small (plural smalls)

1. (rare) Any part of something that is smaller or slimmer than the rest, now usually with anatomical reference to the back.

• small of the back

small (third-person singular simple present smalls, present participle smalling, simple past and past participle smalled)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make little or less.
2. (intransitive) To become small; to dwindle.
   • Thomas Hardy

     And smalled till she was nought at all.

• malls

small (strong)

1. first-person singular past indicative of smella
2. third-person singular past indicative of smella

From Middle Low German smal, from Old Saxon smal, from Proto-Germanic *smalaz. Cognate with German schmal, Dutch smal, English small.

small (comparative smaller, superlative smallst)

1. narrow
2. small, slender

small

1. Alternative form of smal

small

1. past tense of smälla.