N. smallness, littleness, tenuity, paucity, fewness, meanness, insignificance (unimportance) 643, mediocrity, moderation, small quantity, modicum, trace, hint, minimum, vanishing point, material point, atom, particle, molecule, corpuscle, point, speck, dot, mote, jot, iota, ace, minutiae, details, look, thought, idea, soupcon, dab, dight, whit, tittle, shade, shadow, spark, scintilla, gleam, touch, cast, grain, scruple, granule, globule, minim, sup, sip, sop, spice, drop, droplet, sprinkling, dash, morceau, screed, smack, tinge, tincture, inch, patch, scantling, tatter, cantlet, flitter, gobbet, mite, bit, morsel, crumb, seed, fritter, shive, snip, snippet, snick, snack, snatch, slip, scrag, chip, chipping, shiver, sliver, driblet, clipping, paring, shaving, hair, nutshell, thimbleful, spoonful, handful, capful, mouthful, fragment, fraction, drop in the ocean, animalcule, trifle, mere nothing, next to nothing, hardly anything, just enough to swear by, the shadow of a shade, finiteness, finite quantity

V. be small, lie in a nutshell, diminish, (contract) 195

Adj. small, little, diminutive, minute, fine, inconsiderable, paltry, faint, slender, light, slight, scanty, scant, limited, meager, sparing, few, low, so-so, middling, tolerable, no great shakes, below par, under par, below the mark, at a low ebb, halfway, moderate, modest, tender, subtle, inappreciable, evanescent, infinitesimal, homeopathic, very small, atomic, corpuscular, microscopic, molecular, subatomic, mere, simple, sheer, stark, bare, near run, dull, petty, shallow, stolid, ungifted, unintelligent

Adv. to a small extent, on a small scale, a little bit, a wee bit, slightly, imperceptibly, miserably, wretchedly, insufficiently, imperfectly, faintly, passably, pretty well, well enough, partially, in part, in a certain degree, to a certain degree, to a certain extent, comparatively, some, rather in some degree, in some measure, something, somewhat, simply, only, purely, merely, at least, at the least, at most, at the most, ever so little, as little as may be, tant soit peu, in ever so small a degree, thus far, pro tanto, within bounds, in a manner, after a fashion, so to speak, almost, nearly, well-nigh, short of, not quite, all but, near upon, close upon, peu s'en faut, near the mark, within an ace of, within an inch of, on the brink of, scarcely, hardly, barely, only just, no more than, about, thereabouts, somewhere about, nearly, say, be the same, be little more or less, no ways, no way, no wise, not at all, not in the least, not a bit, not a bit of it, not a whit, not a jot, not a shadow, in no wise, in no respect, by no means, by no manner of means, on no account, at no hand

Phr. dare pondus idonea fumo, magno conatu magnas nugas, "small sands the mountain, moments make the year", quantity by comparison with a similar object

N. nearness, proximity, propinquity, vicinity, vicinage, neighborhood, adjacency, contiguity, short distance, short step, short cut, earshot, close quarters, stone's throw, bow shot, gun shot, pistol shot, hair's breadth, span, purlieus, neighborhood, vicinage, environs, alentours, suburbs, confines, banlieue, borderland, whereabouts, bystander, neighbor, borderer, approach, convergence 7c, 290, perihelion

V. be near, adjoin, hang about, trench on, border upon, verge upon, stand by, approximate, tread on the heels of, cling to, clasp, hug, huddle, hang upon the skirts of, hover over, burn, touch bring near, draw near, converge, crowd, place side by side

Adj. near, nigh, close at hand, near at hand, close, neighboring, bordering upon, contiguous, adjacent, adjoining, proximate, proximal, at hand, handy, near the mark, near run, home, intimate

Adv. near, nigh, hard by, fast by, close to, close upon, hard upon, at the point of, next door to, within reach, within call, within hearing, within earshot, within an ace of, but a step, not far from, at no great distance, on the verge of, on the brink of, on the skirts of, in the environs, at one's door, at one's feet, at one's elbow, at one's finger's end, at one's side, on the tip of one's tongue, under one's nose, within a stone's throw, in sight of, in presence of, at close quarters, cheek by jole, cheek by jowl, beside, alongside, side by side, tete-a-tete, in juxtaposition, yardarm to yardarm, at the heels of, on the confines of, at the threshold, bordering upon, verging to, in the way, about, hereabouts, thereabouts, roughly, in round numbers, approximately, approximatively, as good as, well-nigh