1. (

• little

) a small amount or duration; "he accepted the little they gave him" ;

1. (

• small ,
• little ,

) limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent; "a little dining room"; "a little house"; "a small car"; "a little (or small) group" ;

2. (

• little ,
• slight

) (quantifier used with mass nouns) small in quantity or degree; not much or almost none or (with `a') at least some; "little rain fell in May"; "gave it little thought"; "little time is left"; "we still have little money"; "a little hope remained"; "there's slight chance that it will work"; "there's a slight chance it will work" ;

3. (

• little ,
• small

) (of children and animals) young, immature; "what a big little boy you are"; "small children" ;

4. (

• fiddling ,
• footling ,
• lilliputian ,
• little ,
• niggling ,
• piddling ,
• piffling ,
• petty ,
• picayune ,
• trivial

) (informal) small and of little importance; "a fiddling sum of money"; "a footling gesture"; "our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war"; "a little (or small) matter"; "a dispute over niggling details"; "limited to petty enterprises"; "piffling efforts"; "giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction" ;

5. (

• little ,
• small

) (of a voice) faint; "a little voice"; "a still small voice" ;

6. (

• short ,
• little

) low in stature; not tall; "he was short and stocky"; "short in stature"; "a short smokestack"; "a little man" ;

7. (

• little ,
• minuscule ,
• small

) lowercase; "little a"; "small a"; "e.e.cummings's poetry is written all in minuscule letters" ;

8. (

• little

) small in a way that arouses feelings (of tenderness or its opposite depending on the context); "a nice little job"; "bless your little heart"; "my dear little mother"; "a sweet little deal"; "I'm tired of your petty little schemes"; "filthy little tricks"; "what a nasty little situation" ;