slight
- small in amount, degree, etc.: a slight increase; a slight odor.
- of little importance, influence, etc.; trivial: a slight cut.
- slender or slim; not heavily built.
- frail; flimsy; delicate: a slight fabric.
- of little substance or strength.
- to treat as of little importance.
- to treat (someone) with indifference; ignore, especially pointedly or contemptuously; snub: to be slighted by society.
- to do negligently; scamp: to slight one's studies.
- an act or instance of slighting or being slighted: The critics’ slights led her to change direction in her work.
- a pointed and contemptuous discourtesy; affront: She considered not being invited an unforgivable slight.
Origin of slight
Synonyms
See more synonyms for slight on Thesaurus.comAntonyms
Examples from the Web for slights
Contemporary Examples
In any case, Pakistan as a nation has been unforgiving of any slights against Islam.
The discrimination and slights Abe experiences are “part and parcel of what we are experiencing in the world,” says Akhtar.
The most important thing, he and these experts agreed, was finding an environment where slights never escalate to violence.
The tiniest of slights from any vaguely left-of-center source is converted into fuel for the rage machine.
“It inflates the ego,” which in turn opens up endless opportunity for slights both real and perceived.
Historical Examples
Passive, patient, long-suffering she had been the while the mortifications and slights were for herself.
In the ValleyHarold Frederic
For the eye is fastened on the life, and slights the circumstance.
Essays, First SeriesRalph Waldo Emerson
She was too sensitive to slights to risk the repulses he says she accepted.
Mary WollstonecraftElizabeth Robins Pennell
Did she not bear all the slights put upon her by those who are not half as good as she?
Fairy FingersAnna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
You never find he slights his work when your back is turned?
Black BeautyAnna Sewell
slight
- small in quantity or extent
- of small importance; trifling
- slim and delicate
- lacking in strength or substance
- Southwest English dialect ill
- to show indifference or disregard for (someone); snub
- to treat as unimportant or trifling
- US to devote inadequate attention to (work, duties, etc)
- an act or omission indicating supercilious neglect or indifference
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for slights
slight
adj.
early 14c., "flat, smooth; hairless," probably from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse slettr "smooth, sleek," from Proto-Germanic *slikhtaz (cf. Old Saxon slicht; Low German slicht "smooth, plain common;" Old English -sliht "level," attested in eorðslihtes "level with the ground;" Old Frisian sliucht "smooth, slight," Middle Dutch sleht "even, plain," Old High German sleht, Gothic slaihts "smooth"), probably from a collateral form of PIE *sleig- "to smooth, glide, be muddy," from root *(s)lei- "slimy" (see slime (n.)).
Sense evolution probably is from "smooth" (c.1300), to "slim, slender; of light texture," hence "not good or strong; insubstantial, trifling, inferior, insignificant" (early 14c.). Meaning "small in amount" is from 1520s. Sense of German cognate schlecht developed from "smooth, plain, simple" to "bad, mean, base," and as it did it was replaced in the original senses by schlicht, a back-formation from schlichten "to smooth, to plane," a derivative of schlecht in the old sense [Klein].
slight
v.
c.1300, "make plain or smooth," from slight (adj.) Meaning "treat with indifference" (1590s) is from the adjective in sense of "having little worth." Related: Slighted; slighting.
slight
n.
1550s, "small amount or weight," from slight (v.). Meaning "act of intentional neglect or ignoring out of displeasure or contempt" is from 1701, probably via 17c. phrase make a slight of (1610s).