Emily Dickinson Lexicon

little, adj. [OE lytel.]

1. Familiar; well-known.
2. Unprotected; susceptible to danger.
3. Lesser; small in quality; [fig.] anonymous; not well known; not much regarded.
4. Slight; trivial; insignificant; of small power; not of great importance.
5. Meek; humble; [fig.] fond; precious; [metaphor] vulnerable; tender; sensitive; emotionally fragile.
6. Short; not long; with only a few words; having not very many lines in a verse.
7. Small in quantity.
8. Short in period of time.
9. Limited; restricted; constrained; small in diameter.
10. Small in size; [quantifier, opposed to great or large.]
11. Young; small in size; early in years.
12. Dear; sweet; beloved; [paradox] important; meaningful.
13. Phrase. “Little John”: John surnamed Little; [irony] Robin Hood's giant bowman (see John, proper n³).