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Pretty vs Little - What's the difference?

pretty | little |

As adjectives the difference between pretty and little

is that pretty is cunning; clever, skilful while little is small in size.

As adverbs the difference between pretty and little

is that pretty is somewhat, fairly, quite; sometimes also (by meiosis) very while little is not much.

As a noun pretty

is something that is pretty.

As a verb pretty

is to make pretty; to beautify.

As a determiner little is

not much, only a little: only a small amount (of).

As a proper noun Little is

{{surname}.

pretty

English

Alternative forms

* pooty (nonstandard) * purdy (nonstandard) * (l) (dialectal) * (l), (l) (obsolete)

Adjective

(er)
  • Cunning; clever, skilful.
  • * 1877 , George Hesekiel and Bayard Taylor, Bismarck his Authentic Biography , page 380:
  • In the end, however, it was a very pretty shot, right across the chasm; killed first fire, and the brute fell headlong into the brook [...].
  • Pleasant in sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=17 citation , passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. […]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.}}
  • * 2010 , Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian , 4 Feb 2010:
  • To escape a violent beating from sailors to whom he has sold a non-functioning car, Jerry takes his stepfamily for a holiday in a trailer park miles away, where, miraculously, young Nick meets a very pretty young woman called Sheeni, played by Portia Doubleday.
  • Of objects or things: nice-looking, appealing.
  • * 2010 , Lia Leendertz, The Guardian , 13 Feb 2010:
  • 'Petit Posy' brassicas [...] are a cross between kale and brussels sprouts, and are really very pretty with a mild, sweet taste.
  • * 1962 , "New Life for the Liberals", Time , 28 Sep 1962:
  • Damned by the Socialists as "traitors to the working class," its leaders were decried by Tories as "faceless peddlers of politics with a pretty little trinket for every taste."
  • (dated) Moderately large; considerable.
  • *, I.2.4.vii:
  • they flung all the goods in the house out at the windows into the street, or into the sea, as they supposed; thus they continued mad a pretty season […].
  • *
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.}}
  • * 2004 , "Because They're Worth it", Time , 26 Jan 04:
  • "What did you do to your hair?" The answer could be worth a pretty penny for L'Oreal.
  • (dated) Excellent, commendable, pleasing; fitting or proper (of actions, thoughts etc.).
  • * 1815 , (Jane Austen), Emma , Boston 1867, page 75:
  • Some people are surprised, I believe, that that the eldest was not [named after his father], but Isabella would have him named Henry, which I thought very pretty of her.
  • * 1919 , (Saki), ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace :
  • ‘This new fashion of introducing the candidate's children into an election contest is a pretty one,’ said Mrs. Panstreppon; ‘it takes away something from the acerbity of party warfare, and it makes an interesting experience for the children to look back on in after years.’
  • * 1926 , (Ernest Hemingway), , page 251:
  • "Oh, Jake." Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together." Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me. "Yes", I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"
  • (ironic) Awkward, unpleasant.
  • * 1931 , "Done to a Turn", Time , 26 Jan 1931:
  • His sadistic self-torturings finally landed him in a pretty mess: still completely married, practically sure he was in love with Tillie, he made dishonorable proposals of marriage to two other women.

    Quotations

    * (ironic use: ) * 1995 , Les Standiford, Deal to die for , page 123: *: "[...] you can still see where the kid's face is swollen up from this talk: couple of black eyes, lip all busted up, nose over sideways," Driscoll shook his head again, "just a real pretty picture."

    Antonyms

    * ugly

    Derived terms

    * just another pretty face * not a pretty sight * not just a pretty face * PDQ * prettify * prettiness * pretty as a picture * pretty boy * pretty-faced wallaby * Pretty Good Privacy * pretty much * pretty pass * pretty penny * pretty please * Pretty Polly * pretty-pretty * pretty-spoken * purdy * sitting pretty

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Somewhat, fairly, quite; sometimes also (by meiosis) very.
  • * 1723 , Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury , V:
  • By the Sheets you have sent me to peruse, the Account you have given of her Birth and Parentage is pretty exact [...].
  • * 1859 , (Charles Darwin), The Origin of Species , I:
  • It seems pretty clear that organic beings must be exposed during several generations to the new conditions of life to cause any appreciable amount of variation [...].
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
  • * 2002 , , The Great Nation , Penguin 2003, page 539:
  • The Revolutionary decade was a pretty challenging time for business.

    Usage notes

    * When particularly stressed, the adverb (term) serves almost to diminish the adjective or adverb that it modifies, by emphasizing that there are greater levels of intensity.

    Derived terms

    * pretty much * pretty well

    Noun

    (pretties)
  • Something that is pretty.
  • "We'll stop at the knife store a look at the sharp pretties .
  • * 1939 , Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf, ''
  • I'll get you, my pretty , and your little dog, too!

    Verb

  • To make pretty; to beautify
  • * {{quote-book, 2007, Eric Knight, Lassie Come-Home citation
  • , passage=He sat on the hearth rug and began prettying the dog's coat.}}

    Derived terms

    * pretty up

    little

    English

    (wikipedia little)

    Adjective

  • Small in size.
  • Insignificant, trivial.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Chico Harlan
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= 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."}}
  • 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]:
  • 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.
  • * 2004 , Barry Miles, Zappa: A Biography , 2005 edition, ISBN 080214215X, page 5:
  • 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.
  • Small in amount or number, having few members.
  • Short in duration; brief.
  • a little sleep
  • Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow; shallow; contracted; mean; illiberal; ungenerous.
  • * Tennyson
  • 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) big

    Adverb

  • 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= 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

    * much

    Determiner

  • Not much, only a little: only a small amount (of).
  • 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) much