| 1 |
[ adverb ] to a small degree; somewhat
Examples "it's a bit warm" "felt a little better" "a trifle smaller" Used in print (Bell I. Wiley, "Home Letters of Johnny Reb and Billy...)A Georgia soldier gave his wife the following description of the cause and consequence of diarrhoea : `` I have bin a_little sick with diorah two or three days . (Helen Hooven Santmyer, "There Were Fences"...)The part of the mind that preserves dates and events may remonstrate , `` It could have been like that for only a_little while '' ; but true memory does not count nor add : it holds fast to things that were and they are outside of time . (Randall Stewart, "A Little History, a Little Honesty: A...)The cliche loses its talismanic virtue in the light of a_little history . He seemed a_little surprised that it should have caused any particular trouble anywhere . Our Northern brethren also I believe felt a_little tender under those censures ; for though their people had very few slaves themselves , yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others '' . |
| * |
|