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minute

used in a sentence
3 meanings
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1  —as in:
minute size
Definition small, exceptionally small, or insignificant
  • Don't eat a lot of poppy seeds for a few days before a drug test. They have a minute amount of a chemical that can cause a false positive when testing for heroin use.
minute = tiny
Other Uses (with this meaning)
  • Even a minute amount of lead can be harmful to children.
  • minute = tiny
  • The difference was too minute in its expression to be perceived by others, but they knew it to be there.
    Charles Dickens  --  Little Dorrit
  • minute = small
  • It was the kind of box wedding rings came in, purple velvet with a minute catch.
    Harper Lee  --  To Kill a Mockingbird
  • minute = tiny
  • On the left he drew his pictures, with a pencil sharpened to a needle-like point: moth wings with their branching patterns of veins; spider legs, which had minute hairs and tiny feet like claws; beetles, with their feelers and their glossy armor.
    Jeanne DuPrau  --  The City of Ember
  • minute = very small
  • As she speaks Hana gives me a little wink and a minute shake of her head.
    Lauren Oliver  --  Delirium
  • minute = very small
  • He had drunk a few times before—minute quantities that his sister had given him at Woodson Street.
    Thomas Wolfe  --  Look Homeward, Angel
  • minute = small
  • The captain, as a military man, undertook to load it, putting in a minute quantity of powder.
    Fyodor Dostoyevsky  --  The Brothers Karamazov
  • minute = small
  • There were minute amounts of ethanol in both Blane and Santorelli, but that was just the consequence of putrefaction.
    Dean Koontz  --  Sole Survivor
  • minute = small
  • The smell of a strawberry arises from the interaction of at least 350 different chemicals that are present in minute amounts.
    Eric Schlosser  --  Fast Food Nation
minute = very small

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford® USDictionary list — Onelook.com®
2  —as in:
minute description
Definition detailed (including even small considerations); and/or careful (done with care)
  • ...with the brother and friend who was opening all his heart to her ... who could give her direct and minute information of the father and mother, brothers and sisters, of whom she very seldom heard;
    Jane Austen  --  Mansfield Park
minute = detailed
Other Uses (with this meaning)
  • The scientist of today is either a mixture of psychologist and inquisitor, studying with real ordinary minuteness the meaning of facial expressions, gestures, and tones of voice, and testing the truth-producing effects of drugs, shock therapy, hypnosis, and physical torture; or he is chemist, physicist, or biologist concerned only with such branches of his special subject as are relevant to the taking of life.
    George Orwell  --  1984
  • minuteness = attention to detail
    (Editor's note:  The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
  • All these facts she gave with extraordinary minuteness.
    Fyodor Dostoyevsky  --  Crime and Punishment
  • minuteness = attention to detail
    (Editor's note:  The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
  • He described minutely how he had taken her keys, what they were like, as well as the chest and its contents;
    Fyodor Dostoyevsky  --  Crime and Punishment
  • minutely = with careful attention to detail
  • He touched my face; his eyes — too dark, it had been so long since he'd left me — searched my expression minutely.
    Stephenie Meyer  --  Eclipse
  • minutely = carefully
  • She will give you all the minute particulars, which only woman's language can make interesting.
    Jane Austen  --  Emma
  • minute = detailed
  • Madame de Thoux was very minute in her inquiries as to Kentucky, where she said she had resided in a former period of her life.
    Harriet Beecher Stowe  --  Uncle Tom's Cabin
  • minute = detailed
  • Again the jury made minute examinations, and again reported: "We find them to be exactly identical, your honor."
    Mark Twain  --  Pudd'nhead Wilson
  • minute = careful and detailed
  • All these minute particulars were noted by the scout, with a gravity and interest that they probably had never before attracted.
    James Fenimore Cooper  --  The Last of the Mohicans
  • minute = detailed
  • Here Ippolit Kirillovitch drew a minute picture of Mitya's preparations, the scene at Perhotin's, at the shop, with the drivers.
    Fyodor Dostoyevsky  --  The Brothers Karamazov
minute = detailed

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford® USDictionary list — Onelook.com®
3  —as in:
keep the minutes
Definition a written record of what happened at a meeting
  • The secretary keeps the minutes of the meeting.
minutes = written record of what happens at a meeting
Other Uses (with this meaning)
  • Include it as a minute of the meeting.
  • minute = a single item from a written record of what happened at a meeting
  • I always review the minutes to make sure there are no errors.
  • minutes = written record of what happened at a meeting
  • He shall attend all meetings of stock-holders and of the Board of Directors and keep the minutes thereof.
    John Gardner  --  The Sunlight Dialogues
  • minutes = formal notes (of a meeting)
  • He would keep the minutes on the left hand blackboard and then they would be there when he needed to add another to them.
    Dalton Trumbo  --  Johnny Got His Gun
  • minutes = formal notes (of a meeting)
  • In the words of the minutes of the meeting: "It was submitted to the consideration of the council whether, under all circumstances, it would not be eligible to leave Long Island and its dependencies [fortifications] and remove the army to New York."
    David G. McCullough  --  1776
  • minutes = formal notes
  • They also had tally sticks and the minutes of the last meeting.
    T. H. White  --  The Once and Future King
  • minutes = formal notes
  • Do you remember—looking at page sixteen of the grand jury minutes, line ten—'You picked him out of the lineup?'
    Alice Sebold  --  Lucky
  • minutes = formal notes
  • "OPINIONS HERE ARE VARIOUS," Joseph Reed confided to his wife, following a council of war during which he had kept the minutes.
    David G. McCullough  --  1776
  • minutes = formal notes (of a meeting)
  • Not going to detail what new Congress did and said that session and later; minutes are available.
    Robert A. Heinlein  --  The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
minutes = formal notes

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary list — Onelook.com®Wikipedia Article
More commonly:
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.
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