All 50 Uses of
minute
in
Adam Bede
- …usual indoors, when it was not hanging over his head; and he sat watching what went forward with the quiet OUTWARD glance of healthy old age, which, disengaged from any interest in an inward drama, spies out pins upon the floor, follows one's minutest motions with an unexpectant purposeless tenacity, watches the flickering of the flame or the sun-gleams on the wall, counts the quarries on the floor, watches even the hand of the clock, and pleases itself with detecting a rhythm in the…
Chpt 14 (definition 1)minutest = slightest
- The letters, he complained, were so "uncommon alike, there was no tellin' 'em one from another," the sawyer's business not being concerned with minute differences such as exist between a letter with its tail turned up and a letter with its tail turned down.
Chpt 21 (definition 1) *minute = minor
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- All hands worked on in silence for some minutes, until the church clock began to strike six.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- I can't abide to see men throw away their tools i' that way, the minute the clock begins to strike, as if they took no pleasure i' their work and was afraid o' doing a stroke too much."†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- How to reconcile his dignity with the satisfaction of his curiosity by walking towards the Green was the problem that Mr. Casson had been revolving in his mind for the last five minutes; but when he had partly solved it by taking his hands out of his pockets, and thrusting them into the armholes of his waistcoat, by throwing his head on one side, and providing himself with an air of contemptuous indifference to whatever might fall under his notice, his thoughts were diverted by the…†
Chpt 2 (definition 2)
- I've been out of my way for the last twenty minutes to have a look at that place in the valley.†
Chpt 2 (definition 2)
- They had been silent for many minutes now, since they had done talking about Bessy Cranage; Dinah seemed almost to have forgotten Seth's presence, and her pace was becoming so much quicker that the sense of their being only a few minutes' walk from the yard-gates of the Hall Farm at last gave Seth courage to speak.†
Chpt 3 (definition 2)
- They had been silent for many minutes now, since they had done talking about Bessy Cranage; Dinah seemed almost to have forgotten Seth's presence, and her pace was becoming so much quicker that the sense of their being only a few minutes' walk from the yard-gates of the Hall Farm at last gave Seth courage to speak.†
Chpt 3 (definition 2)
- The door of the house is open, and an elderly woman is looking out; but she is not placidly contemplating the evening sunshine; she has been watching with dim eyes the gradually enlarging speck which for the last few minutes she has been quite sure is her darling son Adam.†
Chpt 4 (definition 2)
- "I'll set two-three sticks a-light in a minute."†
Chpt 4 (definition 2)
- But he had the best antidote against imaginative dread in the necessity for getting on with the coffin, and for the next ten minutes his hammer was ringing so uninterruptedly, that other sounds, if there were any, might well be overpowered.†
Chpt 4 (definition 2)
- "I'll be back to thee in a minute."†
Chpt 4 (definition 2) *
- In two minutes Mr. Rann appeared at the door with very deferential bows, which, however, were far from conciliating Pug, who gave a sharp bark and ran across the room to reconnoitre the stranger's legs; while the two puppies, regarding Mr. Rann's prominent calf and ribbed worsted stockings from a more sensuous point of view, plunged and growled over them in great enjoyment.†
Chpt 5 (definition 2)
- "The child's allays i' mischief if your back's turned a minute.†
Chpt 6 (definition 2)
- But she had not been standing there more than five minutes before she came in again, and said to Dinah, in rather a flurried, awe-stricken tone, "If there isn't Captain Donnithorne and Mr. Irwine a-coming into the yard!†
Chpt 6 (definition 2)
- For if he's anywhere on the farm we can send for him in a minute.†
Chpt 6 (definition 2)
- "I'll overtake you in three minutes.†
Chpt 8 (definition 2)
- But you must have a cup o' tea first, child," said Mrs. Poyser, falling at once from the key of B with five sharps to the frank and genial C. "The kettle's boiling—we'll have it ready in a minute; and the young uns 'ull be in and wanting theirs directly.†
Chpt 8 (definition 2)
- But Adam Bede and all his kin might be drownded for what you'd care—you'd be perking at the glass the next minute."†
Chpt 8 (definition 2)
- That is the great advantage of dialogue on horseback; it can be merged any minute into a trot or a canter, and one might have escaped from Socrates himself in the saddle.†
Chpt 9 (definition 2)
- But after Lisbeth had been rocking herself and moaning for some minutes, she suddenly paused and said aloud to herself, "I'll go an' see arter Adam, for I canna think where he's gotten; an' I want him to go upstairs wi' me afore it's dark, for the minutes to look at the corpse is like the meltin' snow."†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- But after Lisbeth had been rocking herself and moaning for some minutes, she suddenly paused and said aloud to herself, "I'll go an' see arter Adam, for I canna think where he's gotten; an' I want him to go upstairs wi' me afore it's dark, for the minutes to look at the corpse is like the meltin' snow."†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- It seemed as if he had sat down for a few minutes' rest and had fallen asleep without slipping from his first attitude of sad, fatigued thought.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- They went upstairs, and for five minutes all was silence.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- Lisbeth had been rocking herself in this way for more than five minutes, giving a low moan with every forward movement of her body, when she suddenly felt a hand placed gently on hers, and a sweet treble voice said to her, "Dear sister, the Lord has sent me to see if I can be a comfort to you."†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- For thee'dst allays lie still wi' thy eyes open, an' Adam ne'er 'ud lie still a minute when he wakened.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- He actually dared not look at this little butter-maker for the first minute or two.†
Chpt 12 (definition 2)
- At last the minute-hand of the old-fashioned brazen-faced timepiece was on the last quarter to eight, and there was every reason for its being time to get ready for departure.†
Chpt 13 (definition 2)
- There was no speaking for minutes after.†
Chpt 13 (definition 2)
- Twenty minutes past eight—but my watch is too fast.†
Chpt 13 (definition 2)
- It was more than half-past eight when Adam and his mother were talking in this way, so that when, about ten minutes later, Hetty reached the turning of the lane that led to the farmyard gate, she saw Dinah and Seth approaching it from the opposite direction, and waited for them to come up to her.†
Chpt 14 (definition 2)
- It was about twenty minutes after sunset.†
Chpt 14 (definition 2)
- Go an' get your supper this minute, child; there's a nice bit o' cold pudding i' the safe—just what you're fond of."†
Chpt 14 (definition 2)
- She looked into it, smiling and turning her head on one side, for a minute, then laid it down and took out her brush and comb from an upper drawer.†
Chpt 15 (definition 2)
- She had sat in this way perfectly still, with her hands crossed on her lap and the pale light resting on her calm face, for at least ten minutes when she was startled by a loud sound, apparently of something falling in Hetty's room.†
Chpt 15 (definition 2)
- That was his thought as he sugared his coffee; but the next minute, as he was lifting the cup to his lips, he remembered how thoroughly he had made up his mind last night to tell Irwine.†
Chpt 16 (definition 2)
- In ten minutes from that time, Mr. Irwine was called for on business, and Arthur, bidding him good-bye, mounted his horse again with a sense of dissatisfaction, which he tried to quell by determining to set off for Eagledale without an hour's delay.†
Chpt 16 (definition 2)
- —he understood what you meant in a minute, and he knew all about building, and could see when you'd made a good job.†
Chpt 17 (definition 2)
- Mr. and Mrs. Poyser paused a minute at the church gate: they were waiting for Adam to Come up, not being contented to go away without saying a kind word to the widow and her sons.†
Chpt 18 (definition 2)
- Run in this minute—there's a good little girl."†
Chpt 20 (definition 2)
- Mr. Bede, I'm sorry you've to wait so long for your ale, but it's coming in a minute.†
Chpt 20 (definition 2)
- Tommy, I'll send you to bed this minute, if you don't give over laughing.†
Chpt 20 (definition 2)
- …two youths between sixteen and nineteen came up with the imaginary bills of parcels, which they had been writing out on their slates and were now required to calculate "off-hand"—a test which they stood with such imperfect success that Bartle Massey, whose eyes had been glaring at them ominously through his spectacles for some minutes, at length burst out in a bitter, high-pitched tone, pausing between every sentence to rap the floor with a knobbed stick which rested between his legs.†
Chpt 21 (definition 2)
- It had been settled very definitely what Mr. Poyser was to do when the young squire should appear, and for the last five minutes he had been in a state of abstraction, with his eyes fixed on the dark picture opposite, and his hands busy with the loose cash and other articles in his breeches pockets.†
Chpt 24 (definition 2)
- The buildings of the Chase Farm lay at one extremity of the Chase, at about ten minutes' walking distance from the Abbey.†
Chpt 27 (definition 2)
- Chapter XXVIII A Dilemma IT was only a few minutes measured by the clock—though Adam always thought it had been a long while—before he perceived a gleam of consciousness in Arthur's face and a slight shiver through his frame.†
Chpt 28 (definition 2)
- You'll perhaps be better in a minute or two."†
Chpt 28 (definition 2)
- Arthur lay still for some minutes after Adam was gone, but presently he rose feebly from the ottoman and peered about slowly in the broken moonlight, seeking something.†
Chpt 28 (definition 2)
- But it was several minutes before he turned round and stepped nearer to Arthur, standing and looking down on him as he lay.†
Chpt 28 (definition 2)
- If you'll please to wait a minute."†
Chpt 28 (definition 2)
Definitions:
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(1) (minute as in: minute size) small, exceptionally small, or insignificant
-
(2) (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.