Little vs Last - What's the difference?
little | last |
Small in size.
Insignificant, trivial.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=
, volume=189, issue=2, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Very young.
(of a sibling) Younger.
* 1871 October 18, The One-eyed Philosopher [pseudonym], "Street Corners", in Judy: or the London serio-comic journal , volume 9, page 255 [http://books.google.com/books?id=_B4oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA255]:
* 2004 , Barry Miles, Zappa: A Biography , 2005 edition, ISBN 080214215X, page 5:
Small in amount or number, having few members.
Short in duration; brief.
Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow; shallow; contracted; mean; illiberal; ungenerous.
* Tennyson
Not much.
:
*
*:Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy […] distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its savour.
Not at all.
:
*
*:But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.
*{{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 13, author=Alistair Magowan, work=BBC Sport
, title= Not much, only a little: only a small amount (of).
Final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind.
* , chapter=5
, title= Most recent, latest, last so far.
* {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place
, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist)
Farthest of all from a given quality, character, or condition; most unlikely, or least preferable.
Being the only one remaining of its class.
Supreme; highest in degree; utmost.
* R. Hall
Lowest in rank or degree.
The (one) immediately before the present.
(of a, day of the week) Closest to seven days (one week) ago.
Most recently.
* Shakespeare
(sequence) after everything else; finally
* Dryden
To perform, carry out.
(label) To endure, continue over time.
:
:
*
*:Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.
(label) To hold out, continue undefeated or entire.
:
a tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes
* 2006, Newman, Cathy, Every Shoe Tells a Story , National Geographic (September, 2006), 83,
To shape with a last; to fasten or fit to a last; to place smoothly on a last.
(obsolete) A burden; load; a cargo; freight.
(obsolete) A measure of weight or quantity, varying in designation depending on the goods concerned.
* 1624 , John Smith, Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, p. 114:
* 1866 , James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England , Volume 1, page 169,
(obsolete) An old English (and Dutch) measure of the carrying capacity of a ship, equal to two tons.
* 1942 (1601) , T D Mutch,
A load of some commodity with reference to its weight and commercial value.
As a proper noun little
is .As a verb last is
.little
English
(wikipedia little)Adjective
Chico Harlan
Japan pockets the subsidy …, passage=Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."}}
- If you want to find Little' France, take any turning on the north side of Leicester square, and wander in a zigzag fashion Oxford Streetwards. The ' Little is rather smokier and more squalid than the Great France upon the other side of the Manche.
- In the forties, hurdy-gurdy men could still be heard in all those East Coast cities with strong Italian neighbourhoods: New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston. A visit to Baltimore's Little Italy at that time was like a trip to Italy itself.
- a little sleep
- The long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise, / Because their natures are little .
Usage notes
Some authorities regard both littler' and '''littlest''' as non-standard. The OED says of the word little: "''the adjective has no recognized mode of comparison. The difficulty is commonly evaded by resort to a synonym (as smaller, smallest); some writers have ventured to employ the unrecognized forms littler, littlest, which are otherwise confined to dialect or imitations of childish or illiterate speech.''" The forms '''lesser''' and ' least are encountered in animal names such as lesser flamingo and least weasel.Antonyms
* (small) large, big * (young) big * (younger) bigAdverb
Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd, passage=But as United saw the game out, little did they know that, having looked likely to win their 13th Premier League title, it was City who turned the table to snatch glory from their arch-rivals' grasp.}}
Antonyms
* muchDeterminer
- There is little water left.
- We had very little to do.
Usage notes
* is used with uncountable nouns, few with plural countable nouns.Antonyms
* (not much) muchlast
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), syncopated variant of (m), from (etyl) latost, (m), , whence English (l).Adjective
(-)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.}}
citation, passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year.}}
- He is the last person to be accused of theft.
- Contending for principles of the last importance.
- the last prize
- (Alexander Pope)
Synonyms
* (final) at the end, caboose, final, tail end, terminal, ultimate * (most recent) latest, most recentDerived terms
* last word * nice guys finish lastDeterminer
(en determiner)- Last night the moon was full.
- We went there last year.
- Last Tuesday was Hallowe'en.
- Last time we talked about this was in January.
- It's Wednesday, and the party was last Tuesday; that is, not yesterday, but eight days ago.
Usage notes
* (both senses) This cannot be used in past or future tense to refer to a time immediately before the subject matter. For example, one does not say or the like.Adverb
(-)- When we last met, he was based in Toronto.
- How long is't now since last yourself and I / Were in a mask?
- I'll go last .
- last but not least
- Pleased with his idol, he commends, admires, / Adores; and, last , the thing adored desires.
Synonyms
* finally * lastlyEtymology 2
From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)Synonyms
* continue * endure * surviveAntonyms
* disintegrate * dissipate * fall apart * wear outEtymology 3
(etyl) .Noun
(wikipedia last) (en noun)- How is an in-your-face black leather thigh-high lace-up boot with a four-inch spike heel like a man's black calf lace-up oxford? They are both made on a last , the wood or plastic foot-shaped form that leather is stretched over and shaped to make a shoe.
Derived terms
*Verb
(en verb)- to last a boot
Etymology 4
From (etyl) last, from (etyl) , (etyl) last, (etyl) Last, (etyl) last, (etyl) lest.Noun
(en noun)- Now we so quietly followed our businesse, that in three moneths wee made three or foure Last of Tarre, Pitch, and Sope ashes [...].
- The last of wool is twelve sacks.
The First Discovery of Australia, page 14,
- The tonnage of the of Harmensz's fleet is given as 25 and 30 lasten .
