All 23 Uses of
minute
in
The War of the Worlds
- I wished I had a light to smoke by, little suspecting the meaning of the minute gleam I had seen and all that it would presently bring me.
Chpt 1.1 (definition 1) *minute = small
- It seemed indeed as if the whole country in that direction was on fire—a broad hillside set with minute tongues of flame, swaying and writhing with the gusts of the dying storm, and throwing a red reflection upon the cloud-scud above.
Chpt 1.11 (definition 2) *minute = detailed
- Before the cylinder fell there was a general persuasion that through all the deep of space no life existed beyond the petty surface of our minute sphere.
Chpt 2.10 (definition 1)minute = small
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- And invisible to me because it was so remote and small, flying swiftly and steadily towards me across that incredible distance, drawing nearer every minute by so many thousands of miles, came the Thing they were sending us, the Thing that was to bring so much struggle and calamity and death to the earth.†
Chpt 1.1 (definition 3)
- For a minute he scarcely realised what this meant, and, although the heat was excessive, he clambered down into the pit close to the bulk to see the Thing more clearly.†
Chpt 1.2 (definition 3)
- It was such a gradual movement that he discovered it only through noticing that a black mark that had been near him five minutes ago was now at the other side of the circumference.†
Chpt 1.2 (definition 3)
- Henderson was a minute or so taking it in.†
Chpt 1.2 (definition 3)
- A few minutes before, there had only been three real things before me—the immensity of the night and space and nature, my own feebleness and anguish, and the near approach of death.†
Chpt 1.7 (definition 3)
- —and in another minute it was with its companion, half a mile away, stooping over something in the field.†
Chpt 1.10 (definition 3)
- For some minutes I lay there in the rain and darkness watching, by the intermittent light, these monstrous beings of metal moving about in the distance over the hedge tops.†
Chpt 1.10 (definition 3)
- Just like parade it had been a minute before—then stumble, bang, swish!†
Chpt 1.11 (definition 3)
- In a few minutes there was, so far as the soldier could see, not a living thing left upon the common, and every bush and tree upon it that was not already a blackened skeleton was burning.†
Chpt 1.11 (definition 3)
- Every minute a fresh gun came into position until, before twilight, every copse, every row of suburban villas on the hilly slopes about Kingston and Richmond, masked an expectant black muzzle.†
Chpt 1.13 (definition 3)
- For half a minute, perhaps, he stared silently.†
Chpt 1.13 (definition 3)
- It was a few minutes past nine that night when these three sentinels were joined by four other Martians, each carrying a thick black tube.†
Chpt 1.15 (definition 3)
- I was so excited by these heavy minute-guns following one another that I so far forgot my personal safety and my scalded hands as to clamber up into the hedge and stare towards Sunbury.†
Chpt 1.15 (definition 3)
- The silence was restored; the minute lengthened to three.†
Chpt 1.15 (definition 3)
- She was steaming at such a pace that in a minute she seemed halfway between the steamboat and the Martians—a diminishing black bulk against the receding horizontal expanse of the Essex coast.†
Chpt 1.17 (definition 3)
- The steam hung upon the water for many minutes, hiding the third Martian and the coast altogether.†
Chpt 1.17 (definition 3)
- For a minute or so I remained watching the curate, and then I advanced, crouching and stepping with extreme care amid the broken crockery that littered the floor.†
Chpt 2.2 (definition 3)
- For a few minutes there was a tussle.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 3)
- It worried at the catch for a minute, perhaps, and then the door opened.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 3)
- For a minute I was not sure.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 3) *
Definitions:
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(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) (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.