Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A unit of fluid measure, as.
- noun In the United States, 1/60 of a fluid dram (0.0616 milliliter).
- noun In Great Britain, 1/20 of a scruple (0.0592 milliliter).
- noun Music A half note.
- noun An insignificantly small portion or thing.
- noun A downward vertical stroke in handwriting.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Very small; diminutive; pygmy.
- noun A very diminutive man or being.
- noun [capitalized] One of an order of monks, founded in the middle of the fifteenth century by St. Francis of Paola, confirmed by Pope Sixtus IV., and again confirmed by Pope Alexander VI. under the name of “Ordo Minimorum Ere-mitarum s. Francisci de Paula” (order of the least hermits of St. Francis of Paola).
- noun In musical notation, a note equivalent in timevalue to one half of a semibreve: it is now also called a half-note, but in early medieval music it was the shortest note used. Also
minima .— - noun A short poem.
- noun The smallest liquid measure, generally regarded as about equal to one drop. It is the sixtieth part of a fluidrachm. See
apothecaries measure , under measure. - noun A small size of type, now called
minion .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Minute.
- noun Anything very minute; ; -- applied to animalcula; and the like.
- noun The smallest liquid measure, equal to about one drop; the sixtieth part of a fluid drachm, equal to one four-hundred-eightieth of a fluid ounce, or 0.06161 milliliter (U. S. measure) or 0.05919 milliliters (British measure).
- noun (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. A small fish; a minnow.
- noun obsolete A little man or being; a dwarf.
- noun (Eccl. Hist.) One of an austere order of mendicant hermits or friars founded in the 15th century by St. Francis of Paola.
- noun (Mus.) A time note, formerly the shortest in use; a half note, equal to half a semibreve, or two quarter notes or crotchets.
- noun obsolete A short poetical encomium.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun music A
half note , drawn as asemibreve with a stem. - noun A unit of volume, in the Imperial and U.S. customary systems, 1/60
fluid drachm . Approximately equal to 1 drop, 62 μL or 0.9grain (weight) of water.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a United States liquid unit equal to 1/60 fluidram
- noun a musical note having the time value of half a whole note
- noun a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 1/60th fluid dram or 0.059194 cubic centimeters
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Yep, you don’t believe in minim wage law or child labor laws just to begin with.
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(A minim is the fortieth part of a crescent.) "Does your good Majesty mean to beggar me?" whined Pug.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Lewis, C. S. 1952
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Perhaps it is time to seriously consider whether the curse on the "minim" and "nosrim" may not have been aimed at the "mandaiia" (Gnostics/Mandaeans) and "nasuraiia" (Gnostics/Nasoreans), two key self-designations of the Mandaeans.
Nosrim wa-Minim = Nasuraiia wa-Mandaiia? James F. McGrath 2008
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The water or sap was dropping fast from the branch, at the rate of sixteen large drops per minute, each drop twice or thrice the size of a "minim," and neither catkins nor leaves had yet expanded.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 Various
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EVERY person knows you have a minim of six months reserve of money to meet your obligation.
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Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
OpenOffice.org 3.1 Has Smoother Drawing And Usability Tweaks | Lifehacker Australia 2009
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" "You can just lie there for a minim, mister always-in-a-hurry.
The Lives of Felix Gunderson Sugu Althomsons 2010
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April 23, 2010 at 3:41 am ai wnts it minim jan i haz it
Classics: now with favorite buttons! - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2010
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Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
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Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
chained_bear commented on the word minim
"'...if you think fit I will administer it myself, together with twenty-five minims of laudanum.'"
--P. O'Brian, The Yellow Admiral, 197
March 19, 2008
sionnach commented on the word minim
Problem is, 25 minims of anything is bound to leave a person more than a little crotchety.
March 19, 2008