Little Russian

American  

noun

1. former name for one of the Ruthenian people or their dialect of Ukrainian.

2. Ukrainian.

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Little Russian British  

noun

1. a former word for Ukrainian

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Example Sentences

With little Russian, he struggled to communicate with others in the prison.

From The Wall Street Journal

“He used it essentially for what you’d imagine: these little Russian songs, accordion sounds and organ sounds and all that kind of stuff,” Lopatin, 43, says via Zoom from Electric Lady Studios, the mythic recording house in New York’s Greenwich Village.

From Los Angeles Times

An angry general waving a pistol was being pursued through the intersection by an even angrier pair of little Russian boys, who were in turn being pursued by their parents: a hysterical, well-dressed woman and a tall, imposing captain with a bandage tied ’round his head, though the wound was clearly no more than a scratch.

From Literature

One said he had asked the bank paid to store his fund's gold to allocate as little Russian metal as possible to it.

From Reuters

Then 19 and knowing little Russian, he struggled to find his way.

From Salon