a mite

انگلیسی

WOTD – 25 June 2019

ریشه‌شناسی

از a + mite (“عنکبوتی خرد از راسته عنکبوتیان; هر چیز بسیار کوچک, خرده, مقدار یا جز بسیار کم”).

آوایش

• (RP, بریتانیایی) آیپا: /ə ˈmaɪt/
• (کانادا) آیپا: [ə ˈmʌɪt]
• پساوند انگلیسی:-aɪt|-aɪt

قید

a mite (نسبی نیست)

1. (غیررسمی) کوچک بودگی مقدار; به مقداراندک; ترجیحا.

   مترادف: a bit, a little, a little bit, a tad, a smidgen

   متضاد: a lot

   • "I hope Mary has been the best of girls?" / "The bestest little girl, Sir—a mite too lively, perhaps, especially when she hears you're coming to see her, […].["]

   • "Silas, now," Esther Whitley had said, "would be a good one for you, Hannah. He's a mite on the old side, but he's steady, an' he's been wed before. He knows the ways of a woman better'n some."

   • Those trousers are a mite too big, but you'll soon grow into them.

   • Words, words, words, bemoans Hamlet, in conversation with the garrulous but inconsequential Polonius, whom he labels a "seller of fish". Given that the Prince of Denmark is himself legendary for vacillation and inaction, this always seemed a mite cheeky to me.

بیشتر بخوانید

• “a mite” in the Collins English Dictionary
• “a mite” (US) / “a mite” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.