minor

WORDNET DICTIONARY

Noun minor has 1 sense

minor(n = noun.person) child, fry, kid, nestling, nipper, shaver, small fry, tiddler, tike, tyke, youngster - a young person of either sex; "she writes books for children"; "they're just kids"; "`tiddler' is a British term for youngster"

has parts: child's body

is a kind of juvenile, juvenile person

has particulars: bairn, buster, changeling, child prodigy, infant prodigy, wonder child, foster-child, foster child, fosterling, imp, monkey, rapscallion, rascal, scalawag, scallywag, scamp, kiddy, orphan, peanut, picaninny, piccaninny, pickaninny, poster child, kindergartener, kindergartner, preschooler, silly, sprog, bambino, toddler, tot, yearling, urchin, street child, waif

Adjective minor has 10 senses

minor(a = adj.all) - of lesser importance or stature or rank; "a minor poet"; "had a minor part in the play"; "a minor official"; "many of these hardy adventurers were minor noblemen"; "minor back roads"

minor(a = adj.all) - lesser in scope or effect; "had minor differences"; "a minor disturbance"

minor(a = adj.all) - inferior in number or size or amount; "a minor share of the profits"; "Ursa Minor"

Derived form noun minority₂

minor(a = adj.all) - of a scale or mode; "the minor keys"; "in B flat minor"

minor(a = adj.all) nonaged, underage - not of legal age; "minor children"

Antonym: major

Derived form noun minority₃

minor(a = adj.all) - of lesser seriousness or danger; "suffered only minor injuries"; "some minor flooding"; "a minor tropical disturbance"

minor(a = adj.all) - of your secondary field of academic concentration or specialization;

minor(s = adj.all) - of the younger of two boys with the same family name; "Jones minor"
minor(s = adj.all) venial - warranting only temporal punishment; "venial sin"
minor(s = adj.all) modest, pocket-size, pocket-sized, small, small-scale - limited in size or scope; "a small business"; "a newspaper with a modest circulation"; "small-scale plans"; "a pocket-size country"

CIDE DICTIONARY

minor, a. [L., a comparative with no positive; akin to AS. min small, G. minder less, OHG. minniro, a., min, adv., Icel. minni, a., minnr, adv., Goth. minniza, a., mins, adv., Ir. & Gael. min small, tender, L. minuere to lessen, Gr. miny`qein, Skr. mi to damage. Cf. Minish, Minister, Minus, Minute.].

Inferior in bulk, degree, importance, etc.; less; smaller; of little account; as, minor divisions of a body. [1913 Webster]
Less by a semitone in interval or difference of pitch; as, a minor third. [1913 Webster]

minor, n.

A person of either sex who has not attained the age at which full civil rights are accorded; an infant; in England and the United States, one under twenty-one years of age. [1913 Webster]
" In hereditary monarchies, the minority of a sovereign ends at an earlier age than of a subject. The minority of a sovereign of Great Britain ends upon the completion of the eighteenth year of his age." [1913 Webster]
The minor term, that is, the subject of the conclusion; also, the minor premise, that is, that premise which contains the minor term; in hypothetical syllogisms, the categorical premise. It is the second proposition of a regular syllogism, as in the following: Every act of injustice partakes of meanness; to take money from another by gaming is an act of injustice; therefore, the taking of money from another by gaming partakes of meanness. [1913 Webster]
A Minorite; a Franciscan friar. [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

minor, adj., n., & v.
--adj.
1 lesser or comparatively small in size or importance (minor poet; minor operation).
2 Mus. a (of a scale) having intervals of a semitone between the second and third, fifth and sixth, and seventh and eighth degrees. b (of an interval) less by a semitone than a major interval. c (of a key) based on a minor scale, tending to produce a melancholy effect.
3 Brit. (in schools) indicating the younger of two children from the same family or the second to enter the school (usu. put after the name).
4 Logic a (of a term) occurring as the subject of the conclusion of a categorical syllogism. b (of a premiss) containing the minor term in a categorical syllogism.
--n.
1 a person under the legal age limit or majority (no unaccompanied minors).
2 Mus. a minor key etc.
3 US a student's subsidiary subject or course (cf. MAJOR).
4 Logic a minor term or premiss.
--v.intr. (foll. by in) US (of a student) undertake study in (a subject) as a subsidiary to a main subject.

Idiom

in a minor key (of novels, events, people's lives, etc.) understated, uneventful. minor axis Geom. (of a conic) the axis perpendicular to the major axis. minor canon a cleric who is not a member of the chapter, who assists in daily cathedral services. minor league US (in baseball, football, etc.) a league of professional clubs other than the major leagues. minor orders see ORDER. minor piece Chess a bishop or a knight. minor planet an asteroid. minor prophet any of the prophets from Hosea to Malachi, whose surviving writings are not lengthy. minor suit Bridge diamonds or clubs.

Etymology

L, = smaller, less, rel. to minuere lessen

DEVIL DICTIONARY

minor

adj. Less objectionable.

THESAURUS

minor

academic specialty, adolescent, area, average, baby, back-burner, boy, budding, callow, casual, child, classical education, common, core curriculum, course, course of study, curriculum, demeaning, dependent, dewy, dinky, disadvantaged, discipline, dispensable, dominant, elective, fair, field, fledgling, general education, general studies, girl, green, growing, hopeful, humanities, humble, immaterial, immature, impubic, in the shade, inappreciable, inconsequential, inconsiderable, indifferent, inessential, inexperienced, infant, inferior, infra dig, ingenuous, innocent, insignificant, intact, irrelevant, juicy, junior, juvenal, juvenile, key, key signature, keynote, lad, laddie, lass, lassie, less, lesser, liberal arts, light, little, low, lower, lowly, major, major key, mediant, mediocre, medium, middling, minute, modest, naive, negligible, new-fledged, nonessential, not vital, obscure, one-horse, ordinary, paltry, pedal point, petit, petty, picayune, piddling, proseminar, pubescent, quadrivium, raw, refresher course, ripening, sapling, sappy, schoolboy, schoolgirl, scientific education, second rank, second string, second-rate, secondary, seminar, servile, shoestring, slight, slip, small, small-beer, small-fry, small-time, smaller, specialty, sprig, stripling, study, sub, subaltern, subdiscipline, subdominant, subject, submediant, subordinate, subservient, subsidiary, subtonic, supertonic, technical, technical education, teenager, teener, teenybopper, tender, third rank, third string, tonality, tonic, tonic key, trifling, trivial, trivium, two-bit, unadult, underage, underprivileged, undeveloped, undistinguished, unessential, unfledged, unformed, unimportant, unimpressive, unlicked, unmellowed, unnoteworthy, unnoticeable, unripe, unseasoned, vernal, virginal, vulgar, ward, young hopeful, young person, younger, youngest, youngling, youngster, youth