minute

Pronunciation

• enPR: mĭn'ĭt, IPA^(key): /ˈmɪnɪt/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪnɪt

Noun

minute (plural minutes)

1. A unit of time equal to sixty seconds (one-sixtieth of an hour).

   You have twenty minutes to complete the test.

2. (informal) A short but unspecified time period.

   Wait a minute, I’m not ready yet!

   Synonyms: instant, jiffy, mo, moment, sec, second, tic

3. A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a degree.

   We need to be sure these maps are accurate to within one minute of arc.

   Synonym: minute of arc

4. (chiefly in the plural, minutes) A (usually formal) written record of a meeting or a part of a meeting.

   Let’s look at the minutes of last week’s meeting.

   • 2008, Pink Dandelion: The Quakers: A Very Short Introduction, p 52:

     The Clerk or 'recording Clerk' drafts a minute and then, or at a later time, reads it to the Meeting. Subsequent contributions are on the wording of the minute only, until it can be accepted by the Meeting. Once the minute is accepted, the Meeting moves on to the next item on the agenda.

5. A unit of purchase on a telephone or other network, especially a cell phone network, roughly equivalent in gross form to sixty seconds' use of the network.

   If you buy this phone, you’ll get 100 free minutes.

6. A point in time; a moment.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     I go this minute to attend the king.

7. A nautical or a geographic mile.
8. An old coin, a half farthing.
9. (obsolete) A very small part of anything, or anything very small; a jot; a whit.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Jeremy Taylor, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     minutes and circumstances of his passion

10. (architecture) A fixed part of a module.
11. (slang, US, Canada, dialectal) A while or a long unspecified period of time

    Oh, I ain't heard that song in a minute!

    • 2010, Kenneth Ring, Letters from Palestine, page 18:

      “Man, I haven’t seen you in a minute,” he says, smiling still. “Maybe like two, three years ago?”

Verb

minute (third-person singular simple present minutes, present participle minuting, simple past and past participle minuted)

1. (transitive) Of an event, to write in a memo or the minutes of a meeting.

   I’ll minute this evening’s meeting.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Charles Dickens, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     I dare say there was a vast amount of minuting, memoranduming, and dispatch-boxing, on this mighty subject.

   • 1995, Edmund Dell, The Schuman Plan and the British Abdication of Leadership in Europe‎:

     On 17 November 1949 Jay minuted Cripps, arguing that trade liberalization on inessentials was socially regressive.

   • 1996, Peter Hinchliffe, The Other Battle‎:

     The Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, Sir Richard Peirse, was sceptical of its findings, minuting, ‘I don’t think at this rate we could have hoped to produce the damage which is known to have been achieved.’

   • 2003, David Roberts, Four Against the Arctic‎:

     Mr. Klingstadt, chief Auditor of the Admiralty of that city, sent for and examined them very particularly concerning the events which had befallen them; minuting down their answers in writing, with an intention of publishing himself an account of their extraordinary adventures.

2. To set down a short sketch or note of; to jot down; to make a minute or a brief summary of.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Bancroft, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     The Empress of Russia, with her own hand, minuted an edict for universal tolerance.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: mīnyo͞ot', IPA^(key): /maɪˈnjuːt/
• (US) enPR: mīn(y)o͞ot', mən(y)o͞ot', IPA^(key): /maɪˈn(j)ut/, /məˈn(j)ut/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːt

Adjective

minute (comparative minuter, superlative minutest)

1. Very small.

   They found only minute quantities of chemical residue on his clothing.

   Synonyms: infinitesimal, insignificant, minuscule, tiny, trace

   Antonyms: big, enormous, colossal, huge, significant, tremendous, vast

2. Very careful and exact, giving small details.
   • 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist:

     The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.

   The lawyer gave the witness a minute examination.

   Synonyms: exact, exacting, excruciating, precise, scrupulous

Coordinate terms

• segont
• eure
• jor
• semaine
• an

Descendants