less

名词 n. 动词 v. 形容词 adj. 副词 adv. 介词 prep. 连词 conj. 限定词 det.
中文释义

英文释义

名词 n.
  1. A smaller amount or quantity. uncountable
    — Less is better.
动词 v.
  1. To make less; to lessen. archaic
    — 1386-90, Gower, Confessio Amantis What he will make lesse, he lesseth.
  2. Alternative form of let's. alt-of,alternative
形容词 adj.
  1. Lesser; smaller. archaic,not-comparable
    — Such too, to a greater or less extent, is the condition of the operatives of every denomination in England, which is the great workhouse of the world.
副词 adv.
  1. comparative degree of little comparative,diminutive,form-of
    — I slept even less last night than I did the night before.
  2. Used for constructing syntactic diminutive comparatives of adjectives and adverbs. comparative,diminutive
    — Randal is less welcome than Rachel but as her spouse we should invite them both.
  3. To a smaller extent or degree. comparative,diminutive
    — The grammar book was less than (that is, not at all) helpful.
介词 prep.
  1. Minus; not including
    — It should then tax all of that as personal income, less the proportion of the car's annual mileage demonstrably clocked up on company business.
连词 conj.
  1. unless dialectal,nonstandard
    — To tell you true, 'tis too good for you, 'less you had grace to follow it
限定词 det.
  1. comparative form of little: more little; of inferior size, degree or extent; smaller, lesser. comparative,form-of
    — Those Rattels are somewhat like the chape of a Rapier, but lesse, which they take from the taile of a snake.
  2. A smaller amount of; not as much.
    — No less than eight pints of beer.
  3. Fewer; a smaller number of. proscribed
    — There are less people here now.

词形变化

lesses present,singular,third-person lessing participle,present lessed participle,past lessed past

词汇关系

反义词
more plus
相关词
fewer lesser

词源

词源 1
Adverb From Middle English les, lesse, leasse, lasse, from Old English lǣs (“smaller, less”), from Proto-Germanic *laisiz, from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to shrink, grow thin, be gentle”). Cognate with Old Frisian lēs (“less”), Old Saxon lēs (“less”). According to Kroonen (2013), from a northern Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *leh₂is- or *leh₃is-, which he connects to Lithuanian liesas (“lean”).
Determiner and preposition from Middle English lees, lesse, leasse, lasse, from Old English lǣssa (“less”), from Proto-Germanic *laisizan-, from Proto-Germanic *laisiz (“smaller, lesser, fewer, lower”) (see above). Cognate with Old Frisian lessa (“less”).
Verb from Middle English lessen, from the determiner.
Noun from Middle English lesse, from the determiner.
词源 2
From Middle English lesse, les, from Old English lǣs, as in þȳ lǣs þe.
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