Few vs Smaller - What's the difference?
few | smaller |
(preceded by another determiner) An indefinite, but usually small, number of.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (used alone) Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of.
(meteorology, of clouds) (US?) Obscuring one eighth to two eighths of the sky.
(meteorology, of rainfall with regard to a location) (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.
(small)
Not large or big; insignificant; few in numbers or size.
* , chapter=5
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (figuratively) Young, as a child.
(writing, incomparable) Minuscule or lowercase, referring to written letters.
Envincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; paltry; mean.
* Carlyle
Not prolonged in duration; not extended in time; short.
In a small fashion.
* (William Shakespeare), (w, A Midsummer Night's Dream) , Act I, scene 2, line 49:
In or into small pieces.
* 2009 , Ingrid Hoffman, CBS Early Morning for September 28, 2009 (transcription)
(obsolete) To a small extent.
* (rfdate) (William Shakespeare), Sonnets , "Lucrece", line 1273
Any part of something that is smaller or slimmer than the rest, now usually with anatomical reference to the back.
(UK, in the plural) Underclothes.
(obsolete) To make little or less.
To become small; to dwindle.
* Thomas Hardy
As a determiner few
is an indefinite, but usually small, number of.As a pronoun few
is few people, few things.As a proper noun Few
is the pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain.As an adjective smaller is
comparative of small.few
English
Determiner
A new prescription, passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}
- I was expecting lots of people at the party, but very few''''' (=''almost none'') ''turned up. Quite a '''few''' of them'' (=''many of them'') ''were pleasantly surprised. I don't know how many drinks I've had, but I've had a '''few . [This usage is likely ironic.]
- NOAA definition of the term "few clouds": An official sky cover classification for aviation weather observations, descriptive of a sky cover of 1/8 to 2/8. This is applied only when obscuring phenomenon aloft are present--that is, not when obscuring phenomenon are surface-based, such as fog.
Usage notes
* (term) is used with plural nouns only; its synonymous counterpart (little) is used with nouns. * Although indefinite in nature, a few is usually more than two (two often being referred to as "a couple of"), and less than "several". If the sample population is say between 5 and 20, a few would mean three or four, but no more than this. However, if the population sample size were in the millions, "a few" could refer to several hundred items. In other words, few'' in this context means ''a very very small percentage but way over the 3 or 4 usually ascribed to it its use with much much smaller numbers. : (term) is grammatically affirmative but semantically negative, and it can license negative polarity items. For example, lift a finger usually cannot be used in affirmative sentences, but can be used in sentences with (term). *: He didn't lift a finger to help us. *: *He lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical) *: Few people lifted a finger to help us. *: *A few people lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical) *: *Fewer people lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical)Synonyms
* little (see usage)Antonyms
* manyDerived terms
* a few * quite a fewAntonyms
* manyReferences
* Meteorology (both senses) *:NOAA Glossary: f
smaller
English
Adjective
(head)Anagrams
*small
English
Adjective
(er)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=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.}}
Engineers of a different kind, passage=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.}}
- A true delineation of the smallest man is capable of interesting the greatest man.
- a small space of time
Synonyms
* (not large or big) little, microscopic, minuscule, minute, tiny; see also * little, wee (Scottish), young * (of written letters) lowercase, minusculeAntonyms
* See also * (not large or big) capital, big, generous (said of an amount of something given), large * adult, grown-up, old * (of written letters) big, capital, majuscule, uppercaseDerived terms
* small arm * small arms * small beer * small calorie * small-cell lung cancer * small change * small claims court * smallclothes * smaller European elm bark beetle * small forward * small fry * smallgoods * smallholder * smallholding * small hours * small intestine * smallish * small-minded * smallmouth * smallmouth bass * smallmouth black bass * smallness * small potatoes * smallpox * smalls * small-scale * small screen * small stuff * smallsword * small talk * small-time * * small wonder * twice as small * twice as small asAdverb
(er)- That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and / you may speak as small as you will.
- That's going to go in there. We've got some chives small chopped as well.
- It small avails my mood.
Derived terms
* writ smallNoun
(en noun)Derived terms
* small of the backVerb
(en verb)- And smalled till she was nought at all.