Antonyms for fewest
Grammar : Adj |
Spell : fyoo |
Phonetic Transcription : fyu |
Definition of fewest
Origin :- Old English feawe (plural; contracted to fea) "few, seldom, even a little," from Proto-Germanic *faw-, from PIE root *pau- (1) "few, little" (cf. Latin paucus "few, little," paullus "little," parvus "little, small," pauper "poor;" Greek pauros "few, little," pais (genitive paidos) "child;" Latin puer "child, boy," pullus "young animal;" Oscan puklu "child;" Sanskrit potah "a young animal," putrah "son;" Old English fola "young horse;" Old Norse fylja "young female horse;" Old Church Slavonic puta "bird;" Lithuanian putytis "young animal, young bird"). Always plural in Old English.
- Phrase few and far between attested from 1660s. Unusual ironic use in quite a few "many" (1883), earlier a good few (1828). The noun is late 12c., fewe, from the adjective.
- Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. [Winston Churchill, 1940]
- adj hardly any
- But I will reckon them as merely equal to those of the state which has the fewest.
- Extract from : « The Polity of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians » by Xenophon
- And then I told him the purport of the letters in the fewest words possible.
- Extract from : « Against Odds » by Lawrence L. Lynch
- Winchester lay the fewest of miles away, but somewhere there was legerdemain.
- Extract from : « The Long Roll » by Mary Johnston
- I told her, in the fewest possible words, for it might be that our time was brief.
- Extract from : « The Pirate of Panama » by William MacLeod Raine
- But now tell me the worst, and let that be in the fewest words possible.'
- Extract from : « The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 » by Thomas de Quincey
- Between the ages of twenty and thirty, fewest wives have twins.
- Extract from : « The Physical Life of Woman: » by Dr. George H Napheys
- Facts are engraved Hierograms, for which the fewest have the key.
- Extract from : « Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History » by Thomas Carlyle
- The one who has had to pay the fewest fines takes the prize,' Denison said with a laugh.
- Extract from : « Chatterbox, 1906 » by Various
- The heir did his best to settle their every doubt in the fewest possible words.
- Extract from : « The Return of Peter Grimm » by David Belasco
- Fewest in number are the Turks, comprising only the officials.
- Extract from : « Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 » by Various
Synonyms for fewest
- exiguous
- few and far between
- imperceptible
- inconsequential
- inconsiderable
- infrequent
- insufficient
- lean
- less
- meager
- middling
- minor
- minority
- minute
- negligible
- not many
- not too many
- occasional
- paltry
- petty
- piddling
- rare
- scant
- scanty
- scarce
- scarcely any
- scattered
- scattering
- seldom
- semioccasional
- short
- skimpy
- slender
- slight
- slim
- some
- sparse
- sporadic
- stingy
- straggling
- thin
- trifling
- uncommon
- unfrequent
- widely spaced
Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019