slight

(slīt)

adj. slight·er, slight·est

1. Small in size, degree, or amount: a slight tilt; a slight surplus.

2. Lacking strength, substance, or solidity; frail: a slight foundation; slight evidence.

3. Of small importance or consideration; trifling: slight matters.

4. Small and slender in build or construction; delicate.

tr.v. slight·ed, slight·ing, slights

1. To treat (someone) with discourteous reserve or inattention: "the occasional feeling of being slighted at others' underestimating my charms and talents" (Joseph Epstein).

2. To treat as of small importance; make light of: "If I have ... slighted the contributions of my many predecessors, let me offer a blanket apology" (Joseph J. Ellis).

3. To do negligently or thoughtlessly; scant: "It is a proper question to ask of an assignment whether some of its parts might be omitted or slighted" (Stanley Fish).

4. To raze or level the walls of (a castle or other fortification).

A deliberate discourtesy; a snub: "She got into the car, thinking how sensitive men are to slights from women and how insensitive to slights to women" (Marge Piercy).

[Middle English, slender, smooth, possibly of Scandinavian origin; see lei- in Indo-European roots.]

slight′ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	slightness - the quality of being unimportant and petty or frivolous puniness, triviality, pettiness unimportance - the quality of not being important or worthy of note joke - a triviality not to be taken seriously; "I regarded his campaign for mayor as a joke"
	2.	slightness - smallness of stature delicacy littleness, smallness - the property of having a relatively small size
	3.	slightness - the property of an attractively thin person slimness, slenderness leanness, spareness, thinness - the property of having little body fat

Translations

esiguità

slightness

[ˈslaɪtnɪs] N

1. [of difference, change, improvement, increase] → insignificancia f; [of injury, problem] → levedad f, poca importancia f; [of accent] → lo poco marcado; [of movement] → lo leve

2. (= slimness) → delgadez f, lo menudo

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

slightness

(of person, build) → Zierlichkeit f

(= triviality) → Geringfügigkeit f; (of acquaintance) → Flüchtigkeit f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

She looked young; yet, had I been required to name her exact age, I should have been somewhat nonplussed; the slightness of her figure might have suited seventeen; a certain anxious and pre-occupied expression of face seemed the indication of riper years.

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The very slightness of the defense was its chief merit, for no one thought of disturbing a mass of brush, which all of them believed, in that moment of hurry and confusion, had been accidentally raised by the hands of their own party.

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`I thought of the physical slightness of the people, their lack of intelligence, and those big abundant ruins, and it strengthened my belief in a perfect conquest of Nature.

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Sometimes slipping them through the slits in his ears, he would seize his spear--which in length and slightness resembled a fishing-pole--and go stalking beneath the shadows of the neighbouring groves, as if about to give a hostile meeting to some cannibal knight.

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Rosamond, whose basis for her structure had the usual airy slightness, was of remarkably detailed and realistic imagination when the foundation had been once presupposed; and before they had ridden a mile she was far on in the costume and introductions of her wedded life, having determined on her house in Middle-march, and foreseen the visits she would pay to her husband's high-bred relatives at a distance, whose finished manners she could appropriate as thoroughly as she had done her school accomplishments, preparing herself thus for vaguer elevations which might ultimately come.

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Close-fitting and black, with heliotrope silk facings under a figured net, it looked far from new, just on this side of shabbiness; in fact, it accentuated the slightness of her figure, it went well in its suggestion of half mourning with the white face in which the unsmiling red lips alone seemed warm with the rich blood of life and passion.

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I did not know the boy by sight, nor did Raffles introduce us; but their conversation proclaimed at once a slightness of acquaintanceship and a license on the lad's part which combined to puzzle me.

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"And that would be a pretty sight!" retorted Annie, glancing with imperceptible slightness at the artist's small and slender frame.

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Today, the machine has created such a variety and contention of noises that pure sound in its slightness and monotony no longer provokes emotion." -Luigi Russolo, Milan, March 11th, 1913.

A STUDY OF ASSESSMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL NOISE INDUCED HEARING LOSS IN INDUSTRIAL WORKERS

Despite its apparent slightness, the song's pretext is multiple: it is at once a tentative ars poetica, a defence of the trobar leu, an incitement to virtue, an elegiac lament for a lost refinement, a warning and plea to his superiors, and a bittersweet complaint to his lady.

"Leu chansonet' e vil"

A slightness of frame will always leave him more susceptible - Cedric Kipre's shocking tackle in December, when the Motherwell man left the boot in, cost Jack the second half of the season.

Jack can be ace in the pack for Gers and Scots

Minimal contact, witnessed by two passing ambulance drivers who immediately stopped and gave her their details as witnesses to the slightness of the bump.

Dishonest drivers; SUNDAY SHOUT