few

[ fyoo ]
See synonyms for: fewfewerfewestfews on Thesaurus.com

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.

Idioms about few

  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.

Origin of few

1
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”

Other words from few

  • o·ver·few, adjective

Words Nearby few

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use few in a sentence

  • 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.

    The Salvaging Of Civilisation | H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

British Dictionary definitions for few

few

/ (fjuː) /


determiner
    • a small number of; hardly any: few men are so cruel

    • (as pronoun; functioning as plural): many are called but few are chosen

  1. (preceded by a)

    • a small number of: a few drinks

    • (as pronoun; functioning as plural): a few of you

  1. a good few informal several

  2. few and far between

    • at great intervals; widely spaced

    • not abundant; scarce

  3. have a few or have a few too many to consume several (or too many) alcoholic drinks

  4. not a few or quite a few informal several

noun
  1. the few a small number of people considered as a class: the few who fell at Thermopylae Compare many (def. 4)

Origin of few

1
Old English fēawa; related to Old High German fao little, Old Norse fār little, silent

few

See less

Derived forms of few

  • fewness, noun

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

Other Idioms and Phrases with few

few

In addition to the idioms beginning with few

  • few and far between
  • few bricks shy of a load
  • few words

also see:

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

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