Determiner

(en-det) (comparative less)

(little);The smallest amount of [something .

* 1857 , (Edmund March Blunt), The American Coast Pilot: Containing Directions for the Principal Harbors , E. & G.W. Blunt, page 135:

The least water we could find there was 4 fathoms, which bears from the point S.E., and is distant 1½ mile.

* John Duncan, Duncan's Travels

To have demolished and rebuilt the walls, would have been a very costly expedient, and as the least of two evils, the painter's brush was resorted to; here and there however, above some of the windows, the black wreathings of the smoke are still discernible through the white covering.

* , chapter=5

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=“Well,” I says, “I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.}}

*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1

, passage=Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.}}

* 2004 , Jim Baggott, Beyond Measure: Modern Physics, Philosophy, and the Meaning of Quantum Theory , Oxford University Press, page 48:

Light does not need to know in advance which is the path of least time because it takes all paths from its source to its destination.