All 29 Uses of
minute
in
The House of Mirth
- She looked about the drawing-room with an expression of minute scrutiny.
Chpt 1.9 (definition 1) *minute = careful
- Mrs. Peniston delighted in discussing the minutest details of festivities in which she had not taken part.
Chpt 1.9 (definition 2) *minutest = smallest
- "I knew it—the parlour-maid never dusts there!" she exclaimed, triumphantly displaying a minute spot on the handkerchief;
Chpt 1.9 (definition 2)minute = small
- There were moments when that day seemed more remote than any other event in her life; and yet she could always relive it in its minutest detail.
Chpt 2.12 (definition 2)minutest = smallest
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- She was vexed to see that, in spite of so many years of vigilance, she had blundered twice within five minutes.†
Chpt 1.2 (definition 3)
- The precious minutes were flying, however; the big chestnuts pawed the ground and flecked their impatient sides with foam; the coachman seemed to be slowly petrifying on the box, and the groom on the doorstep; and still the lady did not come.†
Chpt 1.5 (definition 3)
- Chance, or perhaps his own resolve, had kept them apart since his hasty withdrawal from Bellomont; but Miss Bart was an expert in making the most of the unexpected, and the distasteful incidents of the last few minutes—the revelation to Selden of precisely that part of her life which she most wished him to ignore—increased her longing for shelter, for escape from such humiliating contingencies.†
Chpt 1.8 (definition 3)
- She could never afterward recall how long the duel lasted, or what was the decisive stroke which finally, after a lapse of time recorded in minutes by the clock, in hours by the precipitate beat of her pulses, put her in possession of the letters; she knew only that the door had finally closed, and that she stood alone with the packet in her hand.†
Chpt 1.9 (definition 3)
- Cornelia Van Alstyne was full of it: Molly was there, and Gerty Farish ran in for a minute to tell us about it.†
Chpt 1.9 (definition 3)
- And now do sit down a minute, there's a dear, and let's have a nice quiet jaw together.†
Chpt 1.13 (definition 3)
- If Judy'd been here you'd have sat gossiping till all hours—and you can't even give me five minutes!†
Chpt 1.13 (definition 3)
- "Look here, Lily: won't you give me five minutes of your own accord?"†
Chpt 1.13 (definition 3)
- Oh, the slow cold drip of the minutes on her head!†
Chpt 1.13 (definition 3)
- There is kindling wood here: the fire will burn in a minute.†
Chpt 1.14 (definition 3)
- But as the minutes passed the need of throwing herself on his comprehension became more urgent: she could not bear the weight of her misery alone.†
Chpt 1.15 (definition 3)
- The ringing of the door-bell a few minutes after five confirmed this supposition, and made Lily hastily resolve to write more legibly in future.†
Chpt 1.15 (definition 3)
- Ten minutes later, in the high-perched bedroom of an hotel overlooking the Casino, he was tossing his effects into a couple of gaping portmanteaux, while the porter waited outside to transport them to the cab at the door.†
Chpt 2.1 (definition 3)
- Five minutes' talk sufficed to show that some alien influence had been at work, and that it had not so much subdued his resentment as weakened his will, so that he moved under it in a state of apathy, like a dangerous lunatic who has been drugged.†
Chpt 2.3 (definition 3)
- Ten minutes later the two men passed out together between the gold-laced custodians of the threshold; but in the vestibule Stepney drew up with a last flare of reluctance.†
Chpt 2.3 (definition 3)
- But she had not been ten minutes on her native shore before she realized that she had delayed too long to regain it.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 3)
- She paused, and went on, dropping her glance from Lily's: "He wouldn't stay with her ten minutes if he KNEW——"†
Chpt 2.5 (definition 3)
- Then he began again: "Miss Bart, listen—give me a minute.†
Chpt 2.6 (definition 3) *
- Once, when we were children, and I had rushed up after a long separation, and thrown my arms about her, she said: 'Please don't kiss me unless I ask you to, Gerty'—and she DID ask me, a minute later; but since then I've always waited to be asked."†
Chpt 2.8 (definition 3)
- "Wait a minute—don't go yet; sit quiet and rest a little longer.†
Chpt 2.10 (definition 3)
- "Wait a minute—you've got to let me walk home with you," he said.†
Chpt 2.10 (definition 3)
- She found, however, on reaching home, that the hour was still early enough for her to sit down and rest a few minutes before putting her plan into execution.†
Chpt 2.11 (definition 3)
- "You know I can coax the water to boil in five minutes," Selden continued, speaking as though she were a troubled child.†
Chpt 2.12 (definition 3)
- A voice in the background said that the doctor might be back at any minute—and that nothing, upstairs, was to be disturbed.†
Chpt 2.14 (definition 3)
- These were the only traces of luxury, of that clinging to the minute observance of personal seemliness, which showed what her other renunciations must have cost.†
Chpt 2.14 (definition 3)
Definitions:
-
(1) (minute as in: minute description) detailed (including even small considerations); and/or careful (done with care)
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(2) (minute as in: minute size) small, exceptionally small, or insignificant
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(3) (meaning too common or rare to warrant focus) Much more commonly, minute and minutes refer to a period of time lasting 60 seconds.
Less commonly, they refer to a measurement of angle where 60 minutes make up a single degree, and where a right angle has 90 degrees and a circle has 360 degrees.