Mi*nute" (?), a. [L. minutus, p. p. of minuere to lessen. See Minish, Minor, and cf. Menu, Minuet.]
1. Very small; little; tiny; fine; slight; slender; inconsiderable. "Minute drops." Milton.
2. Attentive to small things; paying attention to details; critical; particular; precise; as, a
minute observer;
minute observation.
Syn. -- Little; diminutive; fine; critical; exact; circumstantial; particular; detailed. -- Minute, Circumstantial, Particular. A circumstantial account embraces all the leading events; a particular account includes each event and movement, though of but little
importance; a minute account goes further still, and omits nothing as to person,
time, place, adjuncts,
etc.
Min"ute , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Minuted;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Minuting.]
To set
down a short sketch or note of; to jot down; to make a minute or a brief summary of.
The Empress of Russia, with her own hand,
minuted an edict for universal tolerance.
Bancroft.
Min"ute , a. Of or pertaining to a minute or minutes; occurring at or marking successive minutes.
Minute bell, a bell tolled at
intervals of a minute, as to
give notice of a death or a funeral. -- Minute book, a book in which
written minutes are
entered. -- Minute glass, a glass measuring a minute or
minutes by the running of sand. -- Minute gun, a discharge of a cannon repeated every minute as a sign of distress or mourning. -- Minute hand, the long hand
of a watch or clock, which makes the circuit of the dial in an hour, and
marks the minutes.
Min"ute (?; 277), n.
[LL. minuta a small portion, small coin, fr. L. minutus small: cf. F. minute. See 4th Minute.]
1. The sixtieth part of an hour; sixty seconds. (Abbrev. m.; as, 4 h. 30
m.)
Four minutes, that is to say,
minutes of an hour.
Chaucer.
2. The sixtieth part of a degree; sixty seconds (Marked thus (′); as, 10° 20′).
3. A nautical or a
geographic mile.
4. A coin; a half farthing. [Obs.]
Wyclif (Mark xii. 42)
5. A very
small part of anything, or anything very small; a
jot; a tittle. [Obs.]
Minutes
and circumstances of his passion.
Jer. Taylor. 6. A point of time; a moment.
I
go this minute to attend the king.
Dryden.
7. The memorandum; a record; a note to preserve the memory of anything; as, to take minutes of a contract; to take minutes of a conversation or debate.
8. (Arch.) A fixed part
of a module.
See Module.
&fist; Different
writers take as the minute one twelfth, one eighteenth, one thirtieth, or one sixtieth part of the module.
Hear it pronounced