Little vs Spare - What's the difference?
little | spare | Related terms |
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).
scanty; not abundant or plentiful.
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=May 24
, author=Nathan Rabin
, title=Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3
, work=The Onion AV Club
sparing; frugal; parsimonious; chary.
* Carew
* {{quote-news, year=2009, date=April 12, author=Phil Patton, title=At VW, the Italian Accent Gets Stronger, work=New York Times
, passage=Under Hartmut Warkuss, its design director until 2003, Volkswagen styling celebrated its Teutonic origins and the spare modernist tradition expressed in Braun radios and coffee makers, reference points for the neomodern simplicity of the iPod. }}
Being over and above what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous.
* Spenser
Held in reserve, to be used in an emergency.
lean; wanting flesh; meager; thin; gaunt.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete, UK, dialect) slow
The act of sparing; moderation; restraint.
* Holland
Parsimony; frugal use.
* Spenser
An opening in a petticoat or gown; a placket.
That which has not been used or expended.
A spare part, especially a spare tire.
(bowling) The right of bowling again at a full set of pins, after having knocked all the pins down in less than three bowls. If all the pins are knocked down in one bowl it is a double spare; in two bowls, a single spare.
(bowling) The act of knocking down all remaining pins in second ball of a frame; this entitles the pins knocked down on the next ball to be added to the score for that frame.
To show mercy.
# To desist; to stop; to refrain.
# To refrain from inflicting harm; to use mercy or forbearance.
# To preserve from danger or punishment; to forbear to punish, injure, or harm; to show mercy.
#* Bible, (w) vi. 34
#* 1883 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Treasure Island)
#* {{quote-news, date=21 August 2012, first=Ed, last=Pilkington, newspaper=The Guardian
, title= To keep.
# To be frugal; not to be profuse; to live frugally; to be parsimonious.
#* (rfdate) (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
# To keep to oneself; to forbear to impart or give.
#* (rfdate) (John Milton)
#* (rfdate) Bible, Proverbs xvii. 27
# (transitive)} To save or gain, as by frugality; to reserve, as from some occupation, use, or duty.
#* (rfdate) (Knolles)
(to give up) To deprive oneself of, as by being frugal; to do without; to dispense with; to give up; to part with.
* (rfdate) (Roscommon)
* (rfdate) (Shakespeare)
* , chapter=22
, title=
Little is a related term of spare.
As a proper noun little
is .As an adjective spare is
scanty; not abundant or plentiful.As a noun spare is
the act of sparing; moderation; restraint.As a verb spare is
to show mercy.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) muchspare
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) spare, spar, from (etyl) ‘thick’).Adjective
(er)- a spare diet
citation, page= , passage=Jones’ sad eyes betray a pervasive pain his purposefully spare dialogue only hints at, while the perfectly cast Brolin conveys hints of playfulness and warmth while staying true to the craggy stoicism at the character’s core. }}
- He was spare , but discreet of speech.
citation
- I have no spare time.
- if that no spare clothes he had to give
- a spare''' anchor; a '''spare bed or room
- O, give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones.
- (Grose)
Derived terms
* go spare * spare part * spare time * spare tire * spare tyre * spare wheelNoun
(en noun)- Killing for sacrifice, without any spare .
- Poured out their plenty without spite or spare .
Etymology 2
From (etyl) sparen, sparien, from (etyl) .Verb
(spar)- He will not spare in the day of vengeance.
- Kill me, if you please, or spare me.
Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die?, passage=Reggie Clemons has one last chance to save his life. After 19 years on death row in Missouri for the murder of two young women, he has been granted a final opportunity to persuade a judge that he should be spared execution by lethal injection.}}
- I, who at some times spend, at others spare , / Divided between carelessness and care.
- [Thou] thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare .
- He that hath knowledge, spareth his words.
- All the time he could spare from the necessary cares of his weighty charge, he bestowed on serving of God.
- Where angry Jove did never spare / One breath of kind and temperate air.
- I could have better spared a better man.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.