a mite en · ADV
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ə ˈmaɪt/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
- [ə ˈmʌɪt] (Canada)
Etymology
From a + mite (“minute arachnid of the order Acarina; anything very small, a minute object, a very little quantity or particle”).
Meanings
-
(idiomatic, informal, not-comparable) To a small extent; in a small amount; rather.
The new show’s look is a mite slicker and the comic situations are set up and executed better, including Episode 1 in which Beavis and Butt-Head mistake an escape room’s bathroom for the place they need to escape.
2022 October 4, Jason Zinoman, “The ’90s Cartoon That Mattered? ‘Beavis and Butt-Head.’ (Fight Me.)”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:In those circumstances, you’d have thought someone who had just blown $36bn of his company’s money in the pursuit of a personal obsession would have been a mite apologetic, wouldn’t you?
2023 May 13, John Naughton, “A moment’s silence, please, for the death of Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse”, in The Observer, →ISSN: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:"I hope Mary has been the best of girls?" / "The bestest little girl, Sir—a mite too lively, perhaps, especially when she hears you're coming to see her,[…].["]
[1870], [Frederick William Robinson], “The Young Guardian”, in Owen:—A Waif (Select Library of Fiction), new edition, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (Battle-ground), page 117:"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:Words, words, words, bemoans Hamlet, in conversation with the garrulous but inconsequential Polonius, whom he labels a "seller of fish". Given that the Prince of Denmark is himself legendary for vacillation and inaction, this always seemed a mite cheeky to me.
2018 November 29, Brian Taylor, “Brexit and sellers of fish”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 26 Jun 2019:
Antonyms
Synonyms
a little bit · a little · slightly · mildly · a mite · a tad · only just · a little · a smidgeon · imperceptibly · hardly · barely · sort of · a smidgen · a tad · a trifle · a little bit · sorta kinda · closely · low-key · nearly · kinda sorta · marginally · scarcely · just · faintly · sorta · a smidgen · kinda · a bit · a bit · modestly · a touch · kind of · somewhat