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View synonyms for few

few

[ fyoo ]

adjective

, few·er, few·est.
  1. not many but more than one:

    Few artists live luxuriously.



noun

  1. (used with a plural verb) a small number or amount:

    Send me a few.

  2. the few, a special, limited number; the minority:

    That music appeals to the few.

pronoun

  1. (used with a plural verb) a small number of persons or things:

    A dozen people volunteered, but few have shown up.

few

/ fjuː /

determiner

    1. a small number of; hardly any

      few men are so cruel

    2. ( as pronoun; functioning as plural )

      many are called but few are chosen

  1. preceded by a
    1. a small number of

      a few drinks

    2. ( as pronoun; functioning as plural )

      a few of you

  2. a good few informal.
    several
  3. few and far between
    1. at great intervals; widely spaced
    2. not abundant; scarce
  4. have a few or have a few too many
    to consume several ( or too many) alcoholic drinks
  5. not a few or quite a few informal.
    several
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. the few
    a small number of people considered as a class Compare many

    the few who fell at Thermopylae

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Usage

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Derived Forms

  • ˈfewness, noun
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Other Words From

  • over·few adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of few1

First recorded before 900; Middle English fewe, Old English fēawe; cognate with Gothic fawai; akin to Latin paucus “few,” paulus “little,” pauper “poor,” Greek paûros “little, few”
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Word History and Origins

Origin of few1

Old English fēawa ; related to Old High German fao little, Old Norse fār little, silent
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. few and far between, at widely separated intervals; infrequent:

    In Nevada the towns are few and far between.

  2. quite a few, a fairly large number; many:

    There were quite a few interesting things to do.

More idioms and phrases containing few

  • a few
  • bricks shy of a load, (a few)
  • of few words
  • precious few
  • quite a bit (few)
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Example Sentences

A few days later, Bush replied, “We will uphold the law in Florida.”

Like many Americans—but few Republican presidential candidates—the former Florida governor has evolved on the issue.

Sputtering, I manage a few “hut-hut-huts” with the other students.

We do see that a few European countries have them on the books: Germany, Poland, Italy, Ireland, a couple more.

So it might be me projecting my desires onto Archer to want to just get away from work for a few weeks.

And she would be wearing some of the jewels with the white dress—just a few, not many, of course.

But I hope at least to play to him a few times, and what is more important, to hear him play repeatedly.

So after a few minutes I remarked to him, "Everything tastes very sweet out of this spoon!"

Drowned every few seconds by our tremendous salvoes, this more nervous noise crept back insistently into our ears in the interval.

Few people, I think, realize that, and fewer still realize the reasonable consequences of that.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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feverwortfew and far between