smallとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From 中期英語 smal, from 古期英語 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”); Low German small (“narrow”); Danish, Norwegian, Swedish smal (“narrow; thin; slender”); Latin malus (“bad”); Russian ма́лый (mályj, “small”).

発音

• (General American)
  • (without the cot–caught merger) IPA: /smɔl/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA: /smɑl/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /smɔːl/, [smoːɫ]
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA: /smoːl/
• 韻: -ɔːl
• ハイフネーション: small

形容詞

small (comparative smaller, superlative smallest)

1. Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.

   Synonyms: little, microscopic, minuscule, minute, tiny; see also Thesaurus:small

   Antonyms: big, (said of an amount of something given) generous, large; see also Thesaurus:large

   A small serving of ice cream.

   A small group.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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, archived from the original on 25 November 2020, 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.

   • 2020 August 13, Ashley Strickland, “The reason we’re shooting laser beams between Earth and the moon”, in CNN‎:

     The orbiter has been observing the moon since 2009, and its reflector is a smaller version of reflector panels placed on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11, 14 and 15 landings on the moon. Soviet lunar robotic landers sent in 1970 and 1973 also carried smaller reflectors.

   • 2024 October 4, Chris Lau and Nodoka Katsura, “This is the world’s smallest Rubik’s Cube. And it actually works”, in CNN‎:

     Guinness World Record confirmed the micro-cube as the world’s smallest rotating puzzle cube in August.

   1. Humiliated or insignificant.

      The bullies had succeeded in making him feel small.

      • 2015, Justin Bieber, Love Yourself:

        For all the times that you made me feel small / I fell in love, now I feel nothing at all

   2. Having a small penis, muscles, or other important body parts, regardless of overall body size.

      Synonyms: little, under-endowed (of genitals)

      Though over six feet tall, the man was very small and ashamed to undress.

2. (figuratively, not comparable) Young, as a child.

   Synonyms: little, (Scottish) wee, young

   Antonyms: adult, grown-up, old

   Remember when the children were small?

3. (writing, not comparable) Minuscule or lowercase, referring to written or printed letters.

   Synonyms: lowercase, minuscule

   Antonyms: big, capital, majuscule, uppercase

   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 584:

     "I've got catholic tastes. Catholic with a small "c", of course."

4. Evincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; paltry; mean.
   • 1851, Thomas Carlyle, The Life of John Sterling:

     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

6. Synonym of little (“of an industry or institution(s) therein: operating on a small scale, unlike larger counterparts”).

   small science

7. (archaic) Slender, gracefully slim.
8. (especially clothing, food or drink) That is small (the manufactured size).

   I'll have a small coffee, thanks.

派生語

副詞

small (comparative smaller, superlative smallest)

1. In a small fashion

   Don't write very small!

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.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, line 1273:

     It small avails my mood.

4. (obsolete) In a low tone; softly.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], line 49:

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

派生語

• writ small

名詞

small (countable and uncountable, plural smalls) (nominalized)

1. (uncountable, especially clothing, food or drink) One of several common sizes to which an item may be manufactured, smaller than a medium.

   Synonym: S

2. (countable, especially clothing, food or drink) An item labelled or denoted as being that size.

   Two smalls and a large, please.

3. (countable, especially with respect to clothing) One who fits an item of that size.
4. (countable, rare) Any part of something that is smaller or slimmer than the rest, now usually with anatomical reference to the back.

   I got a splitting pain in the small of my back

派生語

• small of the back

動詞

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.
   • 1917, Thomas Hardy, The Clock of the Years:

     And smalled till she was nought at all.

アナグラム

• malls