little – English adjective declension

Adjective: little

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparative	littler; lesser
Superlative	littlest; least

Perifrastic

Sample Sentences

Not that she cared twopence for the enormous sum, really, now that concord was established! No, her little flutters of honest remorse were constantly disappearing in the immense exultant joy of being alive and of contemplating her idol. [1914, Arnold Bennett, The Price of Love, Harper & Brothers, page 418:]
This is a little table.
It’s only a little ways now.
I always feel better after a little sleep.
Where's the little boys' room?
You may be an Olympic weightlifter but you're still my little sister.
"You are a little, little man," she proclaimed, staring obviously below my waist as she pronounced the second "little." It was almost disappointing. I'd heard that one before, but it still left a new scar each time. [2017, David Russell, Winston Patrick Mystery 2-Book Bundle, page 70:]
That's a mighty little herd you've got there.
It’s of little importance.
Urania speaks with darken’d brow:
⁠‘Thou pratest here where thou art least;
⁠This faith has many a purer priest,
And many an abler voice than thou: […]’ [1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXVII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 57:]
Listen up, you little shit.
If you want to find Little France, take any turning on the north side of Leicester square, and wander in a zigzag fashion Oxford Streetwards. The Little is rather smokier and more squalid than the Great France upon the other side of the Manche. [1871 October 18, The One-eyed Philosopher [pseudonym], "Street Corners", in Judy or The London Serio-comic Journal, vol. 9, page 255 http://books.google.com/books?id=_B4oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA255]
In the forties, hurdy-gurdy men could still be heard in all those East Coast cities with strong Italian neighbourhoods: New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston. A visit to Baltimore’s Little Italy at that time was like a trip to Italy itself. [2004, Barry Miles, Zappa: A Biography, edition, published 2005, →ISBN, page 5:]
“The theatre was bought by the Croatian immigrants as so many immigrants came here in the ’30s and mostly for mining jobs, but in Schumacher itself it was called little Zagreb, and Zagreb is the capital city of Croatia. There were so many of them that they wanted to have their own little community, so they bought the theatre and they renovated it at that time, remodelled it and made it into a Croatian Hall,” she explained. [2020, Richa Bhosale, “Croatian Hall in need of repairs to remain open”, in Timmins Daily Press:]
He is the embodiment of Fleet Street bullying, using his newspaper to peddle his Little-England, curtain-twitching Alan Partridgesque view of the world, which manages to combine sanctimonious, pompous moralising and prurient, voyeuristic, judgmental obsession [2012, Steve Coogan, Comedian Steve Coogan on Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre:]
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
The long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise, / Because their natures are little. [1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 20:]
Showing unmistakably what a little person he really was, in June 1949 he wrote his newly married daughter with nauseating disregard for the truth [2001, Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis, The Unknown Callas: the Greek Years, page 547:]
Little Science vs Big Science... Little Steel vs Big Steel...

Adjectives inflected like little

little,

Etymology

1. From Middle English litel, litell, luitel, lutel, lutil, luytel, from Old English lȳtel, lyttel, from Proto-West Germanic *lūtil (“little”), from *lūtan (“to bow down, lout”), from Proto-Germanic *lūtaną (“to bow down, lout”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewd- (“to bend, crouch, duck”), equivalent to lout + -le.
2. Cognates
3. Cognate with Yola lethel, litha, lithel, lythea (“little”), North Frisian letj (“little, small”), Saterland Frisian litje (“little, small”), West Frisian lyts (“little, small”), Dutch luttel (“few, little, mere”), German lütt, lützel (“little, small”), Low German lütt, lüttje (“little, small”), Danish liden, lille (“little, small”), Elfdalian litn (“small”), Faroese lítil (“little, small”), Icelandic lítill (“little, small”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish liten (“little, small”), Crimean Gothic lista (“insufficient, very little”), Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (leitils, “little, small”); also Albanian lus, lut (“to beg, plead, request”), Lithuanian liūdnas (“sad, sorrowful”), Bulgarian and Macedonian луд (lud, “crazy, insane, mad”), Serbo-Croatian лу̑д, lȗd (“crazy”). Related also to Old English lūtan (“to bow, bend low”); and perhaps to Old English lytiġ (“deceitful”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍄𐍃 (liuts, “deceitful”). More at lout. See: German Adjectives 'lütt', Gothic Adjectives '𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃', Gothic Adjectives '𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍄𐍃'.

Verbs referencing "little"

German Adjectives lütt, German Adjectives lützel, English Adjectives likkle.