mite
nounUS, UK /maɪt/
Etymology From Middle English mite, from Old English mīte (“mite, tiny insect”), from Proto-West Germanic *mītā, from Proto-Germanic *mītǭ (“biting insect”, literally “cutter”), from *maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small”) or *meh₂y- (“to cut”). Akin to Old High German mīza (“mite”), Middle Dutch mīte (“moth, mite”), Dutch mijt (“moth, mite”), Danish mide (“mite”).
Any of many minute arachnids which, along with the ticks, comprise subclass Acari (syn. Acarina).
A small coin formerly circulated in England, rated at about a third of a farthing.
- One mite wrung from the lab'rer's hands Shall buy and sell the miser's lands;1803, William Blake, Auguries of Innocence:
A lepton, a small coin used in Judea in the time of Christ.
A small weight; one twentieth of a grain.
Adverbial, Sometimes Anything very small; a minute object; a very little quantity or particle.
- a mite
- It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing — and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite — that is all he did.1903 March 17, Mark Twain, letter to Helen Keller:
3 more examples
- "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.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- "Silas, now," Esther Whitley had said, "would be a good one for you, Hannah. He's a mite on the old side, but he's steady, an' he's been wed before. He knows the ways of a woman better'n some."1956, Janice Holt Giles, chapter 8, in Hannah Fowler, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, →OCLC; republished Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1992, →ISBN, page 69:
- Those trousers are a mite too big, but you'll soon grow into them.1959, Frances Cavanah, Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance, Chicago, Ill.: Rand McNally, →OCLC; Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance (ReadHowYouWant Classics Library), EasyRead large edition, U.S.A.: ReadHowYouWant, 2008, →ISBN, page 30:
Colloquial, Often, As a term of endearment A small or naughty person, or one people take pity on; rascal.
- Today's children at Christmas-time take a cast-off toy to the Toy Service held in many churches, and it is a pretty sight to watch those tiny mites clutching their toys and parting from them.j1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 35:
- “Tom told me that, but twasn't your fault, the little mite just couldn't wait to be born that's all.” A small smile played on Leah's lips.2014, Lorraine F Elli, The Little Town Mouse:
- Derived terms
64 terms
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