minim

American  

[min-uhm] / ˈmɪn əm /

noun

1. the smallest unit of liquid measure, 1/60 (0.0167) of a fluid dram, roughly equivalent to one drop. min, min.; ♍, ♏

2. Music. a note, formerly the shortest in use, but now equivalent in time value to one half of a semibreve; half note.

3. the least quantity of anything.

4. something very small or insignificant.

5. (initial capital letter) a member of a mendicant religious order founded in the 15th century by St. Francis of Paola.

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adjective

1. smallest.

2. very small.

minim British  

/ ˈmɪnɪm /

noun

1.  M.  a unit of fluid measure equal to one sixtieth of a drachm. It is approximately equal to one drop

2. Usual US and Canadian name: half-note.  music a note having the time value of half a semibreve

3. a small or insignificant person or thing

4. a downward stroke in calligraphy

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adjective

1. rare very small; tiny

Etymology

Origin of minim

1400–50; late Middle English < Medieval Latin, Latin minimus; as musical term, < Medieval Latin ( nota ) minima; minimum

Example Sentences

What they meant was that Meredith Willson, 63, was a missed minim who didn't belong on the council.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then their variable contrarieties amongst them, when one delivers forth a long tenor or a short, the pausing for time, breathing in measure, breaking the minim or very least moment of time.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 by Various

A little girl of 3 years, bitten by a tiger snake, receives three minim injections every half-hour, and after three of them, whilst in a state of complete coma, gets convulsions.

From On Snake-Poison: its Action and its Antidote by Mueller, A.

The mountain dissolved into minim, the dirt into dust, and she took the speck and blew it back into the shadows from which it had come.

From Eden An Episode by Saltus, Edgar

Gentlemen, not a bit of evidence have you had, not a molecule, not a minim, not a mite.

From The Perfume of Eros: A Fifth Avenue Incident by Saltus, Edgar