noun
definition
A thing that is of smaller size, value, importance etc.
example
The greater sand hills increasingly do not migrate, but almost all lessers do.
adjective
definition
Of two (or, rarely, more than two) things: the smaller in size (littler), in value, in importance etc.
adjective
definition
Small in size.
example
This is a little table.
definition
Insignificant, trivial.
example
It's of little importance.
definition
Very young.
example
Did he tell you any embarrassing stories about when she was little?
definition
(of a sibling) Younger.
example
This is my little sister.
definition
(also Little) Used with the name of a place, especially of a country or its capital, to denote a neighborhood whose residents or storekeepers are from that place.
definition
Small in amount or number, having few members.
example
little money; little herd
definition
Short in duration; brief.
example
I feel better after my little sleep.
definition
Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow; shallow; contracted; mean; illiberal; ungenerous.
Examples of lesser in a Sentence
He will become the lesser of two evils.
She still gave him the look that said she thought he was a lesser being because of his status, but she'd refused to sleep until they found her friend.
His son Moses, who died about the end of the 13th century, translated the rest of Maimonides, much of Averroes, the lesser Canon of Avicenna, Euclid's Elements (from the Arabic version), Ibn al-Jazzar's Viaticum, medical works of IIunain ben Isaac (Johannitius) and Razi (Rhazes), besides works of less-known Arabic authors.
East and west of the mountain and a little in advance of it are lesser hills, the Devil's Peak (3300 ft.) being to the east and Lion's Head (2100 ft.) to the west.
The esquires, knights, lesser barons, even the remote descendants of peers, that is, the noblesse of other countries, in England remained gentlemen, but not noblemen - simple commoners, that is, without legal advantage over their fellowcommoners who had no jus imaginum to boast of.
In these assemblies the large proprietors sit in person, being thus electors in the second degree; the lesser proprietors are represented by delegates, and therefore elect in the third degree.
The length, excluding lesser sinuosities, is about 60 m., Salisbury being 35 m.
The town consists of one wide street, down which a stream of water runs, extending for about 1 m., and crossed at right angles by a lesser street.
To these may be added numerous lesser invasions of India, China and Persia.
He further showed himself helpful in arranging difficulties which at times arose in connexion with the lesser chiefs of his province.
The submission of Lesser Media, which had asserted its independence under Artabazanes, followed.
Some of the criticism of their works, necessary and useful as it has been, will probably be corrected later on by that breadth of view and sense of proportion which has enabled us to appreciate justly the achievements of lesser men in more remote times.
These with a host of lesser dignities built up the imperial hierarchy and enabled the court quickly to develop on the lines of the old monarchy, so far as rules of etiquette and self-conscious efforts could reproduce the courtly graces of the ancien regime.
From 1886 dates the finding of Mycenaean sepulchres outside the Argolid, from which, and from the continuation of Tsountas's exploration of the buildings and lesser graves at Mycenae, a large treasure, independent of Schliemann's princely gift, has been gathered into the National Museum at Athens.
It is traversed by the Great and Lesser Khingan mountains and their offshoots.
In much the same way, at a later date and in a lesser sphere, the closing of the traderoutes by the advance of the Ottoman Turks led traders to endeavour to find new channels, and issued in the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope and the discovery of America.
The kingdom of Lesser Armenia, established in 1195, may also be regarded as a result of the Crusades.
In 1195 Amalric, the brother of Guy de Lusignan, and his successor in Cyprus, sought the title of king from Henry and did homage; and at the same time Leo of Lesser Armenia, in order to escape from dependence on the Eastern empire, took the same course.
The principal village is Capsali, a place of about 1500 inhabitants, at the southern extremity, with a bishop, and several convents and churches; the lesser hamlets are Modari, Potamo and San Nicolo.
In recent years the growth of the leaf under cloth tents has greatly increased, as it has been abundantly proved that the product thus secured is much more valuable - lighter in colour and weight, finer in texture, with an increased proportion of wrapper leaves, and more uniform qualities, and with lesser amounts of cellulose, nicotine, gums and resins.
Rhenish Franconia gradually became a land of free towns and lesser nobles, and under the earlier Franconian emperors sections passed to the count palatine of the Rhine, the archbishop of Mainz, the bishops of Worms and Spires and other clerical and lay nobles; and the name Franconia, or Francia orientalis as it was then called, was confined to the eastern portion of the duchy.
In 1847, as a member of the lesser nobility, he entered the Estates of Lower Austria, and took an active part in the Liberal movement for administrative and constitutional reform of which they were the centre.
The rule followed at first was that attributed to St Anthony; but when they settled in the West modifications from the Benedictine rule were introduced, and the Mechitharists are numbered among the lesser orders affiliated to the Benedictines.
The first of these is merely the principle of rational self-love, " that we ought to prefer a greater to a lesser good, though more distinct, and a less evil to a greater," - the mention of which seems rather inconsistent with Reid's distinct separation of the " moral faculty " from " self-love."
The greater nobles could hold Protestant services in their houses; the lesser nobles could do the same, but only for gatherings of not more than thirty people.
These are (r) chiefs, greater and lesser; (2) priests; (3) Mata ni Vanua (lit., eyes of the land), employes, messengers or counsellors; (4) distinguished warriors of low birth; (5) common people; (6) slaves.
The families are grouped in townships or otherwise (qali) under the lesser chiefs, who again owe allegiance to the supreme chief of the matanitu or tribe.
We hear in several documents of a great idol covered with gold and silver named Cromm Cruach, or Cenn Cruaich, which was surrounded by twelve lesser idols covered with brass or bronze, and stood on Mag Slecht (the plain of prostrations) near Ballymagauran, Co.
There are several harbours, including the Porto Canale, for coasting vessels; the Porto Baross, for timber; and the Porto Grande, sheltered by the Maria Theresia mole and breakwater, besides four lesser moles, and flanked by the quays, with their grain-elevators.
Those who fulfilled these conditions were the oµoiot (peers), citizens in the fullest sense of the word, while those who failed were called inroj Loves (lesser men), and retained only the civil rights of citizenship.
The wide heated plains of the Sahara, and in a lesser degree the corresponding zone of the Kalahari in the south, have an exceedingly scanty rainfall, the winds which blow over them from the ocean losing part of their moisture as they pass over the outer highlands, and becoming constantly drier owing to the heating effects of the burning soil of the interior; while the scarcity of mountain ranges in the more central parts likewise tends to prevent condensation.
This was the end of the great feudal coalitions, for royal vengeance soon settled the account of the lesser vassals; the duke of Alencon was condemned to prison for life; the count of Armagnac was killed; and the Germans were soon to disembarrass Louis of Charles the Bold.
With the object of destroying Calvinism by effective opposition, they imitated the Protestant organization of provincial associations, drawing their chief supporters from the upper middle class and the lesser nobility.
Voting by head, and the double representation of the third estate (tiers lat); this was the great revolution; voting by order meant the continued domination of privilege, and the lesser revolution.
He declared for the lesser reform, the fiscal, not the social; were this rejected, he declared The LItd.
The refusal of the soldiers to coerce the Assembly showed that the monarchy could no longer rely on the army; and a few days later, when the lesser nobility and the lower ranks of the clergy had united with the third estate whose cause was their own, the king yielded, and on the 27th of June commanded both orders to join in the National Assembly, which was thereby recognized and the political revolution sanctioned.
Sutton Bridge is a lesser port on the Wash.
When they passed away there arosg in their places such writers as the younger Seneca, the epic poet Lucan, the epigrammatist Martial, the literary critic Quintilian, besides a host of lesser names.
Some of the lesser sinners were forced to restitution, and in 1618 Lerma fell from power, but only because he was supplanted by his son, the duke of Uceda, a man as worthless as himself.
In the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in many other parts of the world honey of the finest quality is obtained from this " queen of bee-plants," and in lesser degree from other clovers such as sainfoin, alsike (a hybrid clover), trefoil, &c.
When this spirit put on human form and became known at the Saronic Gulf, he developed into the "greater" Ajax, while among the Locrians he remained the "lesser."
Every a of this present universe is only a by a majority, and is also in lesser number b, c, d.
The winter varieties have the advantages of larger yield, earlier ripening and lesser loss from insects, and afford protection to the soil.
Others migrated to Cappadocia or to Cilicia, where the Bagratid Rhupen had founded, 1080, a small principality which, gradually extending its limits, became the kingdom of Lesser Armenia.
After the death of Timur, Armenia formed part of the territories of the Turkoman dynasties of Akand Kara-Kuyunli, and under their milder rule the seat of the Catholicus, which, during the Seljuk invasion, had been moved first to Sivas, and then to Lesser Armenia, was re-established, 1441, at Echmiadzin.
The lesser one was the flight of Greek iconolatrous monks from Asia Minor and the Levant to Sicily and Calabria, where they established convents which for centuries were the western homes of Greek learning, and in which were written not a few of the oldest Greek MSS.
Many of his lesser writings were collected and published as Kriegslieder, Romanzen, Erzahlungen and Legenden (Berlin, 1838).
After Washington's death the Federalist leadership was divided (and disputed) between John Adams, who had the prestige of a varied and great career, and greater strength than any other Federalist with the people, and Hamilton, who controlled practically all the leaders of lesser rank, including much the greater part of the most distinguished men of the country, so that it has been very justly said that " the roll of his followers is enough of itself to establish his position in American history " (Lodge).
It seems probable that it is the lesser or French Brittany from which the stories were derived, though something may be due to Welsh and Cornish sources.
Of lesser importance are greases, which form the by-product of the large slaughter-houses in the United States and Argentina, and American (Canadian) and Japanese fish oils.