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What is "less"

Crossword clues for less

less
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
less
adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bit more/less
▪ Can we have a bit less noise, please?
be more so/less so/too much so
▪ The band is popular and likely to become more so.
▪ Jerry is very honest, perhaps too much so.
far more/less
▪ I enjoyed it far more than I expected.
have more/less luck
▪ I hope you have more luck in the next competition.
higher/larger/less etc than normal
▪ The journey took longer than normal.
less advantaged
▪ Some of the boys come from less advantaged backgrounds.
less than perfect (=not perfect)
▪ So many excellent writers, for example Byron and Keats, were less than perfect spellers.
less well-off (=have less money)
▪ Many pensioners are less well-off than they used to be.
less/least likely
▪ The smallest puppies are the least likely to survive.
more/less fortunate than sb
▪ We’ve been more fortunate than a lot of farmers.
more/less frequent
▪ Her headaches are becoming less frequent.
more/most/less/equally importantly
▪ Most importantly, you must keep a record of everything you do.
quite a bit more/less
▪ They’re worth quite a bit more than I thought.
see more/less of sb (=see someone more or less often)
▪ They’ve seen more of each other since Dan moved to London.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be nothing less than sth
▪ Japan's economic recovery was seen as nothing less than a miracle.
▪ They way they treat their workers is nothing short of barbaric.
▪ But of course to Miss Hoity Toity Grenfell, it was nothing less than she expected.
▪ He come to the remarkable conclusion that Ardakke was nothing less than the setting for the next evolutionary step for mankind.
▪ In such context, between such gilt-lettered cloth-bound boards, the concession was nothing less than munificent.
▪ It is nothing less than an opportunity to save or change the world.
▪ Learn each week in 60 seconds why fashion is nothing less than a full-time job!
▪ Milosevic is nothing less than a traitor.
▪ The experience of being on Iona is nothing less than magical and I am moved to tears.
▪ The result, and the acceptance of it, is nothing less than an outrage.
more haste less speed
more or less
▪ "Did they have what you were looking for at the hardware store?" "Yes, more or less."
▪ There were 50 people there, more or less.
▪ This report says more or less the same thing as the previous one.
▪ What she says is more or less true.
▪ Alexei was a mining engineer in the Kuzbas, but he had more or less refashioned himself into a translator.
▪ And then I was using it more or less daily for years ....
▪ As things are, it's more or less useless.
▪ Lesbians, being women, were more or less ignored as in-consequential so long as they were quiet about their sexuality.
▪ Look also for R Centauri, a red Mira-type variable more or less between the Pointers.
▪ Some programs will let you set the size of the buffer to keep more or less text.
▪ The Trilogy helped create this new man of labor, who is more or less a paralegal.
▪ This time she saw pebbles laid out over the whole of the surface, more or less evenly spaced.
much less
▪ I doubt Clemson will even make the finals, much less win.
▪ Even Libertarians, who advocate much less government, are happy to accept public campaign money.
▪ Even today, most politicians rarely wear neckties, much less power suits.
▪ I will become much less easily tired ... much less easily fatigued ... much less easily discouraged ... much less easily depressed.
▪ In the end, the tax brought in much less revenue than originally forecast.
▪ Its development costs are not much less than the firm's total asset value.
▪ That had to ne injected daily, but her husband recalls the injections being much less frequent.
▪ The bill now goes to the Senate, where its fate is much less assured.
▪ Try dowsing without rods: it's much less cumbersome.
sb couldn't care less
the less fortunate
▪ The organization is collecting canned food to help the less fortunate.
▪ Another case of hard-hearted capitalists pushing aside the less fortunate to enhance their investments?
▪ He devoted his time to prayer and aiding the less fortunate.
▪ His capacity to persuade people to pay attention to the plight of the less fortunate was constant.
▪ In the wider world we examine the great differences between countries like our own and the less fortunate poor world.
▪ It should be spending them on the less fortunate.
▪ Phoenix officials often talk of the helping hand they give to the less fortunate.
▪ The proposals include a comprehensive programme of security and protection for all those engaged in helping the less fortunate.
the more ..., the more/the less ...
the more ..., the more/the less ...
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He seemed to care less and less about the band, and eventually decided to leave.
▪ I want something less formal than a traditional wedding dress.
▪ Of course, it would be less expensive to use frozen fish.
▪ Our awards were presented by the mayor, no less.
▪ Since we got the car, we walk a lot less than we used to.
▪ This type of problem still occurs, but less than it did in the past.
▪ Tickets were less expensive than I expected.
▪ We go to movies less often than we used to.
▪ With the growth of telecommunications, the location of a company's headquarters is becoming less and less important.
▪ You should drive less and walk more often.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But retail investors are trading less and borrowing less from their brokers, cutting the industry's core profits.
▪ But there has been a good deal less successful cross-border brand-building in the confectionery division.
▪ Cycling was certainly less hazardous than today, as petrol rationing restricted motor traffic.
▪ Gradual changes are much less traumatic than sudden changes.
▪ How, they ask, can we entrust this task to some one whose character is anything less than spotless?
▪ However, the adaptation to changing potassium intakes is less rapid and less complete than for sodium.
▪ They are less depressed, less likely to become addicted to drugs and less likely to commit suicide.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Less

Less \Less\, a. [OE. lesse, AS. l[=ae]ssa; akin to OFries. l[=e]ssa; a compar. from a lost positive form. Cf. Lesser, Lest, Least. Less has the sense of the comparative degree of little.] Smaller; not so large or great; not so much; shorter; inferior; as, a less quantity or number; a horse of less size or value; in less time than before.

Note: The substantive which less qualifies is often omitted; as, the purse contained less (money) than ten dollars. See Less, n.

Thus in less [time] than a hundred years from the coming of Augustine, all England became Christian.
--E. A. Freeman.

Less

Less \Less\, adv. [AS. l[=ae]s. See Less, adj., and cf. Lest.] Not so much; in a smaller or lower degree; as, less bright or loud; less beautiful.

Less

Less \Less\, n.

  1. A smaller portion or quantity.

    The children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
    --Ex. xvi. 17.

  2. The inferior, younger, or smaller.

    The less is blessed of the better.
    --Heb. vii. 7.

Less

Less \Less\ (l[e^]s), conj. Unless. [Obs.]
--B. Jonson.

Less

Less \Less\, v. t. To make less; to lessen. [Obs.]
--Gower.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
less

Old English læs (adv.), læssa (adj.), comparative of læs "small;" from Proto-Germanic *lais-izo "smaller" (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian les "less;" Middle Dutch lise "soft, gentle," German leise "soft"), from PIE root *leis- (2) "small" (cognates: Lithuanian liesas "thin"). Formerly also "younger," as a translation of Latin minor, a sense now obsolete except in James the Less. Used as a comparative of little, but not related to it. The noun is Old English læsse.

Wiktionary
less

  1. 1 (context now archaic except with numbers English) (en-comparative of: little); smaller. (from 11th c.) 2 A smaller amount (of); not as much. (from 14th c.) adv. To smaller extent. conj. (context obsolete English) unless prep. Minus; not including v

  2. (context obsolete English) To make less; to lessen.

Related phrases:
WordNet
less

  1. adj. (comparative of `little' usually used with mass nouns) a quantifier meaning not as great in amount or degree; "of less importance"; "less time to spend with the family"; "a shower uses less water"; "less than three years old" [syn: less(a)] [ant: more(a)]

  2. (usually preceded by `no') lower in quality; "no less than perfect"

  3. (usually preceded by `no') lower in esteem; "no less a person than the king himself" [syn: lower]

  4. (nonstandard in some uses but often idiomatic with measure phrases) fewer; "less than three weeks"; "no less than 50 people attended"; "in 25 words or less"

less

  1. adv. used to form the comparative of some adjectives and adverbs; "less interesting"; "less expensive"; "less quickly" [syn: to a lesser extent] [ant: more]

  2. comparative of little; "she walks less than she should"; "he works less these days" [ant: more]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Less

Less or LESS may refer to:

  • Less (band), a band from the San Francisco bay area
  • Less (stylesheet language), a dynamic stylesheet language
  • less (Unix), a Unix utility program

Acronyms:

  • Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), a way of scaling Scrum (software development) in multi-team multi-project environments
  • Lunar Escape Systems, a series of proposed emergency spacecraft for the Apollo Program

Abbreviations:

  • Less., the author abbreviation for Christian Friedrich Lessing (1809-1862), German botanist
Less (Unix)

less is a terminal pager program on Unix, Windows, and Unix-like systems used to view (but not change) the contents of a text file one screen at a time. It is similar to [[more (command)|more]], but has the extended capability of allowing both forward and backward navigation through the file. Unlike most Unix text editors/viewers, less does not need to read the entire file before starting, resulting in faster load times with large files.

Less (band)

Less is a band from the San Francisco Bay Area led by the enigmatically-monikered S. Foot. As of 2005, they have released two albums, Piano Wire Smile (2001) and Cover, Protective, Individual (2004), both on the Firecode Core label. Other members have included Brian Lang (drums) and Ben Shamash (bass), the latter of whom went on to form Skyscraper with Andy Slopsema of Sinombre. Foot produced Sinombre's debut album Curves of Sirens.

Debut album Piano Wire Smile saw comparisons with Tool, and Soundgarden, and was described by Sorted magazine as "one of the greatest 'growers' this year". Wrapped In Wire described Less as a "dark heavy rock band", adding that "they could easily become one of the bigger rock bands of today". Second album Cover, Protective, Individual saw the band adding Middle Eastern influences, electronics, and horns, with Left Off The Dial describing it as "a dark, engaging, and musically interesting album", and Splendid Magazine making comparisons with Led Zeppelin and describing the album as a "sonic gem", while Skratch magazine described it as "rich, mysterious, and sobering".

Less (stylesheet language)

Less (sometimes stylized as LESS) is a dynamic style sheet language that can be compiled into Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and run on the client side or server side. Designed by Alexis Sellier, Less is influenced by Sass and has influenced the newer "SCSS" syntax of Sass, which adapted its CSS-like block formatting syntax. Less is open source. Its first version was written in Ruby; however, in the later versions, use of Ruby has been deprecated and replaced by JavaScript. The indented syntax of Less is a nested metalanguage, as valid CSS is valid Less code with the same semantics. Less provides the following mechanisms: variables, nesting, mixins, operators and functions; the main difference between Less and other CSS precompilers being that Less allows real-time compilation via less.js by the browser.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "less".

The conflict, grown beyond the scope of original plans, had become nothing less than a fratricidal war between the young king and the Count of Poitou for the succession to the Angevin empire, a ghastly struggle in which Henry was obliged to take a living share, abetting first one and then the other of his furious sons.

Either come down to us into the meadow yonder, that we may slay you with less labour, or else, which will be the better for you, give up to us the Upmeads thralls who be with you, and then turn your faces and go back to your houses, and abide there till we come and pull you out of them, which may be some while yet.

The scene I cannot describe--I should faint if I tried it, for there is madness in a room full of classified charnel things, with blood and lesser human debris almost ankle-deep on the slimy floor, and with hideous reptilian abnormalities sprouting, bubbling, and baking over a winking bluish-green spectre of dim flame in a far corner of black shadows.

In physique he closely resembled the Aliansa, being tall and robust and with a face less humanoid than the aborigines of the Mire and Mountain.

He was less concerned with looking good than with avoiding the kind of spectacular abseiling that might put an extra load on the anchor and himself in the morgue.

For ourselves, while whatever in us belongs to the body of the All should be yielded to its action, we ought to make sure that we submit only within limits, realizing that the entire man is not thus bound to it: intelligent servitors yield a part of themselves to their masters but in part retain their personality, and are thus less absolutely at beck and call, as not being slaves, not utterly chattels.

The room was abuzz with lesser courtiers trying to take their first step on the long and slippery ladder to preferment and office.

When the drives are accelerating the whole thing at fourteen gee, the capsule is held a little less than fifty meters from the disk.

As our most powerful particle accelerators can reach energies only on the order of a thousand times the proton mass, less than a millionth of a billionth of the Planck energy, we are very far from being able to search in the laboratory for any of these new particles predicted by string theory.

When the lead in the assay has been separated as sulphate and dissolved in sodic acetate, less chromate is apparently required, and in this case it will be necessary to precipitate the lead in the standard with an equivalent of sodic sulphate and redissolve in sodic acetate just as in the assay.

The determination is rendered sharper and less liable to error by the addition of a few drops of acetic acid to convert the chromate into bichromate.

He had known almost from the time he left her that he would never truly be able to forget Holly, and after less than six months away from her he had ached so intensely for her that he had often woken up in the night with his face wet with tears and the echoes of her name still resounding through his mind as he called despairingly for her.

Which implies, I hope, that what we need is more citizen activation and less government efforts at achieving their objectives for them.

The reduction of the kingdom of Osrhoene was an acquisition of less splendor indeed, but of a far more solid advantage.

Phocas does not appear less hateful in the exercise than in the acquisition of power.