Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Great.
- adverb Greatly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To magnify.
- Great; large.
- Much; abundant.
- noun Size; magnitude; bigness.
- noun A great deal; a large quantity: as, many littles make a mickle.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Old Eng. & Scot. Much; great.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Large ,great . - adjective A great
quantity oramount of. - noun A
great amount .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He does not regard the Scotchman's "mickle," because he does not stop to consider that the end is a "muckle."
The Negro Problem Timothy Thomas Fortune 1892
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Another and sadder "mickle" has been the departure of ten lepers for
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"Aye, weel, mony a mickle mak's a muckle, as Papa used to say."
Watershed 2010
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Many proverbs use alliteration: "Many a mickle (little) makes a muckle (lot)," rhyme: "Man proposes, God disposes," parallelism: "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," ellipsis: "First come, first served," etc.
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As for the lust of the belly, eating and drinking, what pleaseth Allah thereof is that each take naught save that which the Almighty hath appointed him be it little or mickle, and praise the Lord and thank Him; and what angereth Him thereof is that a man take that which is not his by right.
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When Sir John Good-Ale heard of this, Thomas Good-Ale he came with mickle might
Archive 2008-08-01 Carla 2008
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Miss Clara does not merit respect and kindness at your hand; but I doubt mickle if she wad care a bodle for thae braw things.
Saint Ronan's Well 2008
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When Sir John Good-Ale heard of this, Thomas Good-Ale he came with mickle might
John Barleycorn Carla 2008
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‘And ye ken mickle less of my hinnie, sir,’ replied Maggie,
Redgauntlet 2008
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Telford take the mickle brown aver and the black cut-tailed mare, and make out towards the Kerry-craigs, and see what tidings you can have of
The Abbot 2008
brtom commented on the word mickle
"And whiles they spake the door of the castle was opened and there nighed them a mickle noise as of many that sat there at meat. "
Joyce, Ulysses, 14
January 20, 2007
bilby commented on the word mickle
Proverb: Many a little makes a mickle.
December 10, 2007
sionnach commented on the word mickle
I'd always heard this proverb as "many a mickle makes a muckle".
December 10, 2007
qroqqa commented on the word mickle
'Mickle' and 'muckle' are dialectal variants of the same word; it is related to Latin magn-, Greek megal-, Sanskrit mah-. Its palatalized form is seen in Tolkien's Michel Delving in the Shire; and a variant of this gave rise to Middle English 'much'.
The confusion of the proverb—treating 'mickle' and 'muckle' as opposites instead of synonyms—is first recorded in the papers of one George Washington, who calls it 'a Scotch addage'.
August 1, 2008
bilby commented on the word mickle
I had a few Scots swear white and blue at me that sionny's version of the proverb was correct. I claimed it wasn't, based essentially on what qroqqa has explained. Modern usage decoupled from history again.
August 2, 2008
sionnach commented on the word mickle
It was only through a question on the buy vaccines site (which, I regret to say, is considerable lamer than the freerice site) that I learned yesterday that a 'mickle' is, in fact, a large quantity, not an infinitesimal one. Because of the proverb I had always thought a mickle was like a drop in the bucket.
But it could also be argued that it's counterintuitive to have the two words mean the same thing. One is inclined to think of analogies like 'micro/macro', where the vowel change indicates a shift in meaning.
August 2, 2008
bookhling commented on the word mickle
Mickle is supposed to mean a lot? This is quite confounding.
August 18, 2008
bilby commented on the word mickle
"Many a little makes a micle."
- William Camden, 'Remaines of a greater worke concerning Britaine, 1605'.
October 23, 2008
itz_chucknorris commented on the word mickle
sounds like Nickels.... which are just as good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 29, 2010
knitandpurl commented on the word mickle
"As a result, the authorities of his country, the United States of America, have made him swear a mickle oath of secrecy, and keep supplying him with new uniforms of various services and ranks, and now have sent him to London."
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, p 146 of the Avon Books paperback edition
January 28, 2013