/ˈmaɪ.nəs/, /ˈmɑe.nəs/, /ˈmaɪ.nəs/
OriginFrom Middle English mynus, from Latin minus, neuter form of minor, comparative form of parvus (“small, little”), from the Proto-Indo-European root *mey- (“few, small”).
- Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).
“Seven minus two is five.”
- informalWithout; deprived of.
“I walked out minus my coat.”
- The minus sign (−).
“On the third day a Master Barnard brings me up a slate full of plusses, minusses, x, y, z’s, and other letters of the alphabet, in a most amiable algebraical confusion.”
- A negative quantity.
- A downside or disadvantage.
“He valued Roderick’s friendship with the highest value he put on anything nowadays. Over the years they had assessed each other’s plusses and minusses and settled for the difference.”
“As with LCR tout court the question is less to do with the plusses and minusses of the individual ideologies in themselves than in their relationship with their opposite numbers, in this case of Reaso”
“When Morrison mulls the pluses and minuses associated with rebuking Kelly for undermining the government’s public health messaging, the prime minister faces a genuine substantive dilemma, and that goe”
- not-comparableBeing a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction.
- not-comparableThat is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale.
- colloquial, not-comparable, obsoleteWorse off than before; out of pocket.
“The races being finished, we left Epsom for London, Mordaunt's natural vile temper not being at all improved by being three hundred pounds minus by the week's speculation […] .”
- not-comparable, postpositionalRanking just below (a designated rating).
“He got a grade of B minus for his essay.”
- colloquial, transitiveTo subtract.
“For example, in solving the following equation, x + 4 = 9, the child using the negating mechanism will reason, "minussing 4" undoes "plussing 4" therefore, if x + 4 = 9 then x = 5 and will not see any”
“(The terms positive and negative feedback are now part of everyday language where the meanings are reversed: in cybernetic systems, positive feedback is undesirable for it indicates that the discrepan”
“Four plus one is 5 and you go down because it's minusing, […]”
Formsminuses(plural) · minusses(plural) · minuses(present, singular, third-person) · minusses(present, singular, third-person) · minusing(participle, present) · minussing(participle, present) · minused(participle, past) · minused(past) · minussed(participle, past) · minussed(past) · Minuses(plural)