All 37 Uses of

minute

in

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Minute diamonds of moisture from the mist hung, too, upon Tess's eyelashes, and drops upon her hair, like seed pearls.
Chpt 3 *

minute = small

Across these minute pools the reflected stars flitted in a quick transit as she passed; she would not have known they were shining overhead if she had not seen them there—the vastest things of the universe imaged in objects so mean.
Chpt 5

Uses with a meaning too common or too rare to warrant foucs:

In a few minutes a youth appeared in the distance, walking in the same direction as that which had been pursued by Durbeyfield.†
Chpt 1

All right—I'll overtake you and Cuthbert in five minutes; don't stop; I give my word that I will, Felix.†
Chpt 1

VII On the morning appointed for her departure Tess was awake before dawn—at the marginal minute of the dark when the grove is still mute, save for one prophetic bird who sings with a clear-voiced conviction that he at least knows the correct time of day, the rest preserving silence as if equally convinced that he is mistaken.†
Chpt 1

A few minutes later the chimneys of The Slopes appeared in view, and in a snug nook to the right the poultry-farm and cottage of Tess' destination.†
Chpt 1

She obeyed the signal to wait for him with unspeculative repose, and in a few minutes man and horse stopped beside her.†
Chpt 2

Parishioners dropped in by twos and threes, deposited themselves in rows before her, rested three-quarters of a minute on their foreheads as if they were praying, though they were not; then sat up, and looked around.†
Chpt 2

In a minute it came up on the other side of the field at the same equable pace; the glistening brass star in the forehead of the fore horse first catching the eye as it rose into view over the stubble, then the bright arms, and then the whole machine.†
Chpt 2

He had allowed her to free herself; and in a minute or two the milking of each was resumed.†
Chpt 3

Nobody had beheld the gravitation of the two into one; and when the dairyman came round by that screened nook a few minutes later, there was not a sign to reveal that the markedly sundered pair were more to each other than mere acquaintance.†
Chpt 3

After these tender contests and her victory she would go away by herself under the remotest cow, if at milking-time, or into the sedge or into her room, if at a leisure interval, and mourn silently, not a minute after an apparently phlegmatic negative.†
Chpt 4

She had run up in her bedgown to his door to call him as usual; then had gone back to dress and call the others; and in ten minutes was walking to the head of the stairs with the candle in her hand.†
Chpt 4

Tess was so receptive that the few minutes of contact with the whirl of material progress lingered in her thought.†
Chpt 4

A minute later she came down with a flush on her face and tears in her eyes.†
Chpt 4

The only minute Tess could get to be alone with Clare was when they met upon the landing.†
Chpt 4

However, when she found herself alone in her room for a few minutes—the last day this on which she was ever to enter it—she knelt down and prayed.†
Chpt 4

She did not stay downstairs for more than a minute, but proceeded to her chamber, whither the luggage had been taken.†
Chpt 5

Among so many happier moods which forbid repose this was a mood which welcomed it, and in a few minutes the lonely Tess forgot existence, surrounded by the aromatic stillness of the chamber that had once, possibly, been the bride-chamber of her own ancestry.†
Chpt 5

From above there was no sound; but in a few minutes there came a knock at the door.†
Chpt 5

As she was fully attired, and the interval since his calling her had been but two or three minutes, she must have been dressed or nearly so before he went to summon her.†
Chpt 5

Her excitement had in a measure kept her warm during the few minutes' adventure; but that beatific interval was over.†
Chpt 5

As they could not talk with freedom in the driver's presence he asked her to accompany him for a few steps on foot along one of the branch roads; she assented, and directing the man to wait a few minutes they strolled away.†
Chpt 5

But I started from home to go to Casterbridge Fair, where I have undertaken to preach the Word from a waggon at half-past two this afternoon, and where all the brethren are expecting me this minute.†
Chpt 6

Ah, if I could only make your dear heart ache one little minute of each day as mine does every day and all day long, it might lead you to show pity to your poor lonely one.†
Chpt 6

Thus they passed the minutes, each well knowing that this was only waste of breath, the one essential being simply to wait.†
Chpt 7

Ah, if I could only make your dear heart ache one little minute of each day as mine does every day and all day long, it might lead you to show pity to your poor lonely one....I would be content, ay, glad, to live with you as your servant, if I may not as your wife; so that I could only be near you, and get glimpses of you, and think of you as mine....I long for only one thing in heaven or earth or under the earth, to meet you, my own dear!†
Chpt 7

In a very few minutes after, he was driving up the hill out of the town which, three or four months earlier in the year, Tess had descended with such hopes and ascended with such shattered purposes.†
Chpt 7

His face grew colder and more shrunken as he stood concentrated on the moment, and a minute or two after, he found himself in the street, walking along he did not know whither.†
Chpt 7

Not more than a minute had elapsed after her withdrawal when Tess woke, and then Clare.†
Chpt 7

In a minute or two her breathing became more regular, her clasp of his hand relaxed, and she fell asleep.†
Chpt 7 *

A few minutes after the hour had struck something moved slowly up the staff, and extended itself upon the breeze.†
Chpt 7

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
(4) (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.