All 50 Uses of
minute
in
To Kill a Mockingbird
- It was the kind of box wedding rings came in, purple velvet with a minute catch.
p. 38.9 *minute = tiny
- She called us by all our names, and when she grinned she revealed two minute gold prongs clipped to her eyeteeth.
p. 47.9minute = very small
- [T]his case ... requires no minute sifting of complicated facts,
p. 231.0 *minute = detailed
Uses with a meaning too common or too rare to warrant foucs:
- Lemme think a minute...it's sort of like making a turtle come out...†
p. 15.5
- I don't want you hollerin' something different the minute I get back.†
p. 15.9
- Jem's free dispensation of my pledge irked me, but precious noontime minutes were ticking away.†
p. 26.2
- As the year passed, released from school thirty minutes before Jem, who had to stay until three o'clock, I ran by the Radley Place as fast as I could, not stopping until I reached the safety of our front porch.†
p. 37.2
- Hush a minute, I'm thinkin'.†
p. 39.1
- With this thought in mind, I made perhaps one step per minute.†
p. 58.7
- "Just a minute, Miss Rachel," he said.†
p. 61.9
- "Please," I pleaded, "can'tcha just think about it for a minute— by yourself on that place—"†
p. 63.7
- When the new wore off his grandfather's watch, and carrying it became a day's burdensome task, Jem no longer felt the necessity of ascertaining the hour every five minutes.†
p. 69.1
- Minutes later, it seemed, I was awakened by someone shaking me.†
p. 77.7
- When Uncle Jack caught me, he kept me laughing about a preacher who hated going to church so much that every day he stood at his gate in his dressing-gown, smoking a hookah and delivering five-minute sermons to any passers-by who desired spiritual comfort.†
p. 89.6
- I don't know what you're talkin' about, but you better cut it out this red hot minute!†
p. 94.9
- I had sat there perhaps five minutes when I heard Aunt Alexandra speak: "Where's Francis?†
p. 95.4
- "Cal," said Jem, "can you come down the sidewalk a minute?"†
p. 106.1
- Let's wait a minute.†
p. 108.3
- ...'n' all of a sudden he just relaxed all over, an' it looked like that gun was a part of him...an' he did it so quick, like...I hafta aim for ten minutes 'fore I can hit somethin'....†
p. 111.8
- At the time, however, I thought the only explanation for what he did was that for a few minutes he simply went mad.†
p. 118.3
- Jem read for perhaps twenty minutes, during which time I looked at the soot-stained mantelpiece, out the window, anywhere to keep from looking at her.†
p. 122.9
- A minute later, nerves still tingling, Jem and I were on the sidewalk headed for home.†
p. 123.5
- Exactly fourteen minutes past five.†
p. 125.3
- It suddenly came to me that each day we had been staying a little longer at Mrs. Dubose's, that the alarm clock went off a few minutes later every day, and that she was well into one of her fits by the time it sounded.†
p. 125.4
- She died a few minutes ago.†
p. 127.1
- "Hush baby," she whispered, "you'll see in a minute."†
p. 137.9
- He nearly slammed it, but caught himself at the last minute and closed it softly.†
p. 152.7
- As we grew older, Jem and I thought it generous to allow Atticus thirty minutes to himself after supper.†
p. 153.9
- Hold on a minute.†
p. 157.9
- "Atticus," his voice was distant, "can you come here a minute, sir?"†
p. 159.8
- Dill's face appeared at the screen, disappeared, and five minutes later he unhooked the screen and crawled out.†
p. 169.8
- Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children...you children last night made Walter Cunningham stand in my shoes for a minute.†
p. 179.7
- "Whoa now, just a minute," said a club member, holding up his walking stick.†
p. 186.4
- There was already bruises comin' on her arms, and it happened about thirty minutes before—†
p. 191.7
- "Wait a minute, Sheriff," said Atticus.†
p. 192.0
- So serene was Judge Taylor's court, that he had few occasions to use his gavel, but he hammered fully five minutes.†
p. 196.9
- "Just a minute, sir," said Atticus genially.†
p. 199.3
- He went to the court reporter, said something, and the reporter entertained us for some minutes by reading Mr. Tate's testimony as if it were stock-market quotations: "...which eye her left oh yes that'd make it her right it was her right eye Mr. Finch I remember now she was bunged."†
p. 200.4
- We'll take ten minutes.†
p. 214.4
- I was studyin' why, just passin' by, when she says for me to come there and help her a minute.†
p. 219.5
- He's been at it 'bout five minutes.†
p. 230.2
- The jury might be out and back in a minute, we don't know—" but we could tell Atticus was relenting.†
p. 236.2 *
- 'bout thirty minutes.†
p. 237.9
- Well, from the way you put it, it'd just take five minutes.†
p. 239.8
- I expected Mr. Tate to say any minute, "Take him, Mr. Finch...."†
p. 240.3
- Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell's shoes a minute.†
p. 249.7
- An inevitable verdict, maybe, but usually it takes 'em just a few minutes.†
p. 253.8
- One minute they're tryin' to kill him and the next they're tryin' to turn him loose...I'll never understand those folks as long as I live.†
p. 254.2
- It took a few minutes to work the candy into a comfortable wad inside my jaw.†
p. 257.0
- Alexandra, could you come to the kitchen a minute?†
p. 268.2
Definitions:
-
(1)
(minute as in: minute size) small, exceptionally small, or insignificant
-
(2)
(minute as in: minute description) detailed (including even small considerations); and/or careful (done with care)
-
(3)
(minutes as in: keep the minutes) a written record of what happened at a meeting
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(4)
(meaning too common or rare to warrant focus) meaning too common or too 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.