1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. lesser

Find the word definition

What is "lesser"

Crossword clues for lesser

lesser
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
lesser
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a lesser evil (=a bad thing, but not as bad as something else)
▪ She knew that she couldn't leave the children, so she opted for the lesser evil and stayed.
a lesser offence (=one that is not as serious as another offence)
▪ For rioting you can receive ten years in prison, while for the lesser offence of violent disorder you can receive five years in prison.
to a lesser extent (also to less extent) (= less)
▪ The same is true for women, though to a lesser extent.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
amount
▪ Usually a choice has to be made whether to carry out 100% inspection or some lesser amount on a sampling basis.
▪ Receiving a far lesser amount was another sponsor, Rep.
▪ Skills are being learnt, greater or lesser amounts of efforts are being made by individuals.
▪ Charged approximately 7.50 per hour for the public meeting, and a lesser amount for the exhibition space.
charge
▪ But magistrates found them guilty on a lesser charge of causing the animal to be terrified.
▪ Often, in panic, the accused will admit to the lesser charge without a trial.
▪ The appeal court, overturning this conviction, found him guilty only on what was described as the lesser charge of genocide.
▪ The others are likely to face lesser charges because they apparently played more limited roles.
▪ Whoever gunned Mahoney while he lay in a hospital bed need have no pipe dreams about Murder Two or other lesser charge.
▪ That deadline may force the department and prosecutors to either file the lesser charges or drop the costly, complex investigation.
▪ He was convicted of the lesser charge by a jury, with the addition that the assault had taken place under provocation.
▪ Originally charged with aggravated battery, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of reckless homicide.
crime
▪ Tawell would be charged with the lesser crime of possessing a forged bond rather than actually forging it.
▪ Six others were acquitted of genocide and the remaining two were given prison sentences for the lesser crime of negligence of duty.
degree
▪ That road is coated with tar - the same substance found, to a greater or lesser degree, in cigarettes.
▪ So did some leaders in Mesa, Chandler and Scottsdale, cities that participated to a lesser degree.
▪ Each of these premises can be seen acting to a greater or lesser degree in the siting of any particular settlement.
▪ One can argue that transfer payments involve a lesser degree of government intervention in the economy than do government purchases.
▪ On the contrary they are a natural feature of the human condition, present in everyone to a greater or lesser degree.
▪ Instead, the governments in the Middle East - survive to a greater or lesser degree by simple repression.
▪ What is meant by science in this case is of course the physical sciences and to a lesser degree the biological sciences.
evil
▪ Here reasoned choice between lesser evils was the course which brought the least ill on humanity.
▪ If it comes to the crunch, going in would seem to me the lesser evil.
▪ In a continent where economic successes are rare, authoritarianism may seem a lesser evil than abject poverty.
extent
▪ Supplies came from the London Brick Company and to a lesser extent from nearby Stonehouse.
▪ It also applied, to a lesser extent, in Prussia.
▪ Rather, they affect production through their influence on labour quality and, to a lesser extent, labour quantity.
▪ Some techniques were employed to a lesser extent but still provide invaluable comparative results.
▪ With every formal organisation there exists, to a greater or lesser extent, a complex informal organisation.
▪ All societies differentiate and, to a greater or lesser extent, allocate unequal rewards on the basis of age.
▪ Mutuality of feeling may enable acceptance of this in both partners and to a greater or lesser extent usually does.
importance
▪ These purely doctrinal responses were, however, of lesser importance than one practical implication of Luxemburgism.
▪ A number of measures of lesser importance but worthy of note were passed during Pinay Cuevas' ministership.
▪ A symbol of lesser importance was the cross and its variants such as the star, wheel and swastika.
man
▪ Certainly he is a lesser man.
▪ But real life, of course, teaches lesser men to keep their heads down and their mouths shut.
▪ His fitness and determination ensured that he survived a journey on which a lesser man could have been lost without trace.
▪ The superficial similarities might make a lesser man than Mikhail Gorbachev tremble.
▪ It is a political culture in which the strong man dominates a series of lesser men through intimidation and debt.
▪ It was not often that the High King searched me for truth as he was wont to search lesser men.
▪ The men are important, especially the lesser man.
▪ This is certainly true of lesser men at the royal court.
mortal
▪ And together we were emphatically co-operative that neighbouring forces were populated by lesser mortals.
▪ Successful engineering students tended to be contemptuous of the work habits of lesser mortals.
▪ We lesser mortals who had been banished to such places as Wolverton were, however, less fortunate.
▪ Those who are out for good times race but we lesser mortals chat and laugh, banter and encourage.
▪ There are two recently developed areas which are perfect for lesser mortals.
▪ Cook was making fresh cornbread rolls for breakfast and lesser mortals were hard at it with brooms and mops.
▪ We lesser mortals have to be content with the Lesser Detective.
▪ No wonder prime ministers treated him as their equal, and lesser mortals on the political scene regarded him with awe.
offence
▪ Indecency in public displays is and should remain a separate if lesser offence.
▪ His state of mind will help to determine whether he is guilty of murder or the lesser offence of manslaughter.
▪ Or would it be fairer to convict the harm-doer of a lesser offence, thus ignoring the chance result?
▪ If it results in young Pardy being charged with a lesser offence, Deanes will be highly satisfied.
▪ However, of these, 42 percent. pleaded guilty to a lesser offence such as indecent assault.
role
▪ But the great difference here is the lesser role played by registration.
▪ What geophysicists have been lacking is a way to measure the temperature deep down, where radioactive heating plays a lesser role.
▪ Guide books customarily take a lesser role, informing the traveller and listing things to see.
▪ Educational requirements play a lesser role for interviewers placing secretaries, word processing operators, and other clerical personnel.
sum
▪ Payment of lesser sum Order 11 contains the provisions which apply.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
lesser/ordinary/mere mortals
▪ A penchant for setting oneself apart and above mere mortals.
▪ And together we were emphatically co-operative that neighbouring forces were populated by lesser mortals.
▪ However, such models of the universe are not of much interest to us ordinary mortals.
▪ Lords, ladies, dukes and duchesses figure prominently among the names as well as more ordinary mortals of obviously substantial means.
▪ Miracles can be worked by Him alone, although mere mortals may entreat Him by prayer to perform them on their behalf.
▪ She held herself raised by her great prosperity above all that ordinary mortals fear and reverence.
▪ This increased exposure allows them to exploit their advantages over more ordinary mortals more easily than their predecessors could.
to a greater or lesser extent
▪ All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, have been doing this all our lives.
▪ All polite exchanges are conventional to a greater or lesser extent.
▪ All societies differentiate and, to a greater or lesser extent, allocate unequal rewards on the basis of age.
▪ Both historians proceed to a greater or lesser extent by way of discussion of great photographers.
▪ Different professional institutions may define to a greater or lesser extent the modes and their mix.
▪ In these cases A is to a greater or lesser extent unclear, ambiguous.
▪ They also, to a greater or lesser extent, existed outside mainstream, predominantly male controlled, hierarchical structures.
▪ With every formal organisation there exists, to a greater or lesser extent, a complex informal organisation.
well-known/little-known/lesser-known
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The jury found him innocent of murder, but could not decide on the lesser charges.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But real life, of course, teaches lesser men to keep their heads down and their mouths shut.
▪ His fitness and determination ensured that he survived a journey on which a lesser man could have been lost without trace.
▪ Hundreds of lesser sites were destroyed.
▪ It had lain on the matting by his feet looking somehow obscenely wealthy and golden among the lesser coins.
▪ Rather, they affect production through their influence on labour quality and, to a lesser extent, labour quantity.
▪ The lesser verdict may also assist the judge in sentencing, and help the public to understand the sentence imposed.
▪ To impress and drive away lesser males, the harem bull develops a darker coat and a swollen neck.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lesser

Lesser \Less"er\ (l[e^]s"[~e]r), a. [This word is formed by adding anew the compar. suffix -er (in which r is from an original s) to less. See Less, a.] Less; smaller; inferior.

God made . . . the lesser light to rule the night.
--Gen. i. 15.

Note: Lesser is used for less, now the compar. of little, in certain special instances in which its employment has become established by custom; as, Lesser Asia (i. e., Asia Minor), the lesser light, and some others; also in poetry, for the sake of the meter, and in prose where its use renders the passage more euphonious.

The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
--Shak.

The larger here, and there the lesser lambs.
--Pope.

By the same reason may a man, in the state of nature, punish the lesser breaches of the law.
--Locke.

Lesser

Lesser \Less"er\, adv. Less. [Obs.]
--Shak.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
lesser

early 13c., a double comparative, from less + -er (2). Johnson calls it "a barbarous corruption of less, formed by the vulgar from the habit of terminating comparatives in -er." As an adverb from 1590s; now generally poetic or obsolete except in expression lesser-known (1813).

Wiktionary
lesser

a. 1 (en-comparative of: little) 2 of two things, the smaller in size, value, importance etc. n. a thing that is of smaller size, value, importance etc.

Related phrases:
WordNet
lesser

  1. adj. of less size or importance; "the lesser anteater"; "the lesser of two evils" [ant: greater]

  2. smaller in size or amount or value; "the lesser powers of Europe"; "the lesser anteater"

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Lesser

Lesser, from Eliezer (, "Help/Court of my God"), is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

  • Adolf Lesser (1851–1926), German physician
  • Aleksander Lesser (1814–1884), Polish painter and art critic
  • Anton Lesser (born 1952), British actor
  • Axel Lesser (born 1946), East German cross country skier
  • Edmund Lesser (1852–1918), German dermatologist
  • Erik Lesser (born 1988), German biathlete
  • Gabriele Lesser (born 1960), German historian and journalist
  • George Lesser, American musician
  • Gerald S. Lesser (1926–2010), American psychologist
  • Henry Lesser (born 1963), German footballer
  • J Lesser (born 1970), American musician
  • Len Lesser (1922–2011), American actor
  • Louis Lesser (born 1916), American real estate developer
  • Matt Lesser, Connecticut politician
  • Mike Lesser (born 1943), British mathematical philosopher and political activist
  • Milton Lesser or Stephen Marlowe (1928–2008), American author
  • Norman Lesser (1902–1985), Anglican bishop and Archbishop of New Zealand
  • Otto Lesser (1830–1887), German astronomer
  • Rika Lesser (born 1953), American poet
  • Robert Lesser (born 1942), American actor
  • Rosa Lesser, Austrian luger
  • Ryan Lesser, Rhode Island video game designer
  • Sam Lesser or Sam Russell (1915–2010), British journalist and Spanish Civil War veteran
  • Sol Lesser (1890–1980), American film producer
  • Stephen A. Lesser (born 1944), American architect
  • Wendy Lesser (born 1952), American author, editor and critic
  • Werner Lesser (1932–2005), East German ski jumper

Lesser is also a given name. Notable people with the given name include:

  • Lesser Samuels (1894–1980), Hollywood screenwriter
  • Lesser Ury (1861-1931), German Impressionist painter and printmaker
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "lesser".

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.

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

It was a compound of actinium, a substance far more radioactive than radium, but of lesser duration.

Solitude had killed every power in her save vanity, and the form her vanity took was peculiarly irritating to her husband, and in a lesser degree to her daughter, for neither the Elder nor Loo would have founded self-esteem on adventitious advantages of upbringing.

The day was away back in the alcheringa and it had been very still and very hot, and the whole tribe, with the exception of one man, lay amongst the bracken in the shade of big eucalypti and lesser myrtles and other scrub.

Sometimes the wolves would slink into the Lesser Town and attack the almsfolk foraging for scraps in the middens, and sometimes an almsman would be discovered dead in the snow, half naked and frozen stiff, still clutching his staff, looking like a statue toppled from its pedestal.

From this, and much other evidence, geologists have deduced that the Altiplano is still gradually rising, but in an unbalanced manner with greater altitudes being attained in the northern part and lesser in the southern.

Of course everyone understood that the Ancestress had no intention of burying her wealth with Fainting Maid, but the display was customary, and it was also designed to make lesser mortals turn green with envy.

It is observed by arithmeticians, that the products of 9, compose always either 9, or some lesser product of 9, if you add together all the characters of which any of the former products is composed.

But evidently she saw him as a lesser enemy and focused her wrath on the Asper snake.

That greater or lesser grace appears in the baptized, may occur in two ways.

Praepositivus, however, says that children who die after being exorcized but before being baptized are subjected to lesser darkness.

Fool, I, Rob, do rob and have robbed greater robbers that I might by robbery live to rob like robbers again, as thou, by thy foolish folly, fooleries make, befooling fools lesser than thou, that thou, Fool, by such fool-like fooleries may live to fool like fools again!

She was generally at the centre of things, surrounded by a bickering and admiring crowd of seemingly lesser mortals, which sometimes included Jalila.

Radhakrishnan had occupied himself with implanting the biochip, a lesser surgeon - more of a technician, really - had drilled a few holes through the disembodied chunk of skull and implanted a plastic connector.