Free TranslationFree Translation
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Minimum   /mˈɪnəməm/   Listen
Minimum

adjective
1.
The least possible.  Synonym: minimal.  "Her grades were minimal" , "Minimum wage" , "A minimal charge for the service"



Related searches:



WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Minimum" Quotes from Famous Books



... I could have seen you personally, I had it in mind to say many things which don't lend themselves to pen and ink. Some of them perhaps can be put down with a minimum of awkwardness. ...
— Recollections • David Christie Murray

... work of my collaborators has been made to conform, I have sought to render as justly and as exactly as possible the intensely idiomatic speech that Hauptmann employs. In doing this I have had to take occasional liberties with my text, but I have tried to reduce these to a minimum, and always to make them serve a closer interpretation of the original shade of thought or turn of expression. The rendering of the plays written in normal literary prose or verse needs no such explanation nor the plea for a measure of critical indulgence ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann

... about an hour, Sir Edward said more than once, as he has often said to me, that he hoped we should be able to keep the friction between our governments at the minimum. He would regard it as the greatest calamity if the ill-feeling that various events have stirred up in sections of public opinion on each side should increase or should become permanent. His constant wish and effort were to lessen and if ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II • Burton J. Hendrick

... ran away from classes and how the truant class, in toto, was suspended for the two closing weeks of the semester, with no privilege of "making up" the grades. And the legend runs that one girl, and the most prominent girl in the class at that, by reason of this sentence fell just below the minimum grade required ...
— Missy • Dana Gatlin

... designed to win success by spectacular appeal, there is no doubt that it is good business for the producer to spend as much money as is necessary to make his effects more beautiful and more amazing than anything ever before seen upon the stage. But even here he must hold his expenses down to the minimum that will prove a good investment, and what he may spend is dependent on what the vaudeville managers will pay for the privilege of showing that act in ...
— Writing for Vaudeville • Brett Page

... door with the yarn they need; its volunteers take delivery of the cloth woven, paying them cash at the market rate. The Ashram merely loses interest on the loan advanced for the yarn. It has as yet suffered no loss and is able to restrict its loss to a minimum by limiting the loan to a particular figure. All future transactions are strictly cash. We are able to command a ready sale for the cloth received. The loss of interest, therefore, on the transaction is negligible. ...
— Third class in Indian railways • Mahatma Gandhi

... order reigned supreme, where respect for authority was marked, the standard of comfort, if not high, was at any rate sufficient, the domestic relations and family life were almost ideal, clean living was the custom, crime was at a minimum, education was universal, amusements were plentiful, the artistic feeling and instincts were not the cult of a class but were shared by the common people. This was the nation, self-contained and self-satisfied, ...
— The Empire of the East • H. B. Montgomery

... proportionately increased. The mass of the piece, d, may, moreover, be relatively small compared with that of N S and A. If d be again withdrawn, the magnetic resistance is increased, and the lines through A are again a minimum. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 633, February 18, 1888 • Various

... they fail utterly to comprehend the meaning of what is said. You as a student cannot afford to have your attention so distracted from the meaning of the lecture, therefore reduce your classroom writing to a minimum. ...
— How to Use Your Mind • Harry D. Kitson

... prevents the action of air currents during the weighing. The balance itself has very delicate knife edges, sometimes of agate, sometimes of hardened steel, and these knife edges rest, when in use, on a block of agate or steel, so that there is a minimum amount of friction. When not in use the balance beam and knife edges are lifted from the block and held firmly by a metal arm, or else, as is the case with some balances, the post supporting the block is lowered, leaving the beam and knife edges out of ...
— A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public • Frank Bertram Wade

... minimum of effort, and the rope slipped and creaked. "Now, Shorty, you go outside and tell me what ...
— Smoke Bellew • Jack London

... propulsion, as by taking an engine that had been developed to some extent, and adapting it to its new work, the problem of mechanical flight was rendered easier than if a totally new type had had to be evolved. It was quickly realised—by the Wrights, in fact-that the minimum of weight per horse-power was the prime requirement for the successful development of heavier-than-air machines, and at the same time it was equally apparent that the utmost reliability had to be obtained from the engine, while a third requisite was economy, ...
— A History of Aeronautics • E. Charles Vivian

... Its use should be attended by a minimum of danger. Suitable design, proper proportions, sound materials and careful ...
— A Catalogue of Play Equipment • Jean Lee Hunt

... case the service may be very small, reduced to the minimum, for instance, caring for the gold of another by locking it up in a fire and burglar-proof safe. For this simple service a comparatively small charge is made. But caring for the property of another is always some service that earns a reward great ...
— Usury - A Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View • Calvin Elliott

... home, very happy and contented, two hours later, with half a franc in his pocket, this comparative wealth being due to the fact that the minimum stake permitted by the Roville casino is just double that sum. He was sorry not to have won, but his mind was too full of rosy dreams to permit of remorse. It was the estimable old gentleman's dearest wish that his daughter should marry some rich, open-handed man who would ...
— The Man Upstairs and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse

... for this autumn—say, six months. Large capital at command. Could produce partners, in such an enterprise, also with large capital. Represented such. Returns would be enormous. Would I name a sum? a minimum sum that I required to have, in any case? Would I look at it as a Fortune, and in no other point of view? I shook my head, and said, my tongue was tied on the subject for the present; I might be more communicative at another time. Exit Beale in confusion and disappointment.)—You ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster

... the same may be said as in the case of the sounds. Esperanto only adopts the minimum of roots essential, and these are simple, non-ambiguous, and as international as possible. Owing to the device of word-building by means of a few suffixes and prefixes with fixed meaning, the number of roots ...
— International Language - Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar • Walter J. Clark

... becomes evident that the observations made on cellar-windows have a direct bearing on the construction of the studio-window. In the diagram b as well as in that under No. 510 the window-opening is reduced to a minimum, but only, it would seem, in order to emphasize the advantage of walls constructed on the plan ...
— The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Complete • Leonardo Da Vinci

... and racial differences, favoured the new regime, while the resources of the country and its geographical position on the map of Europe gave to its trade and industry an extraordinary efflorescence. The communes found in Belgium a well prepared ground. Politically, they met with a minimum of resistance; economically, they benefited from a maximum ...
— Belgium - From the Roman Invasion to the Present Day • Emile Cammaerts

... oceans have evolved. The modification is necessary that organisms mat be able to function on a planet where the difference in gravity is as one to three compared with your Earth. In other words a minimum density is ...
— The Planet Mars and its Inhabitants - A Psychic Revelation • Eros Urides and J. L. Kennon

... State allows them to possess—for outside of the State there is no ownership—of their leisure and of their freedom to enjoy it. The State is even the basis of men's characters, for it sets up and establishes a minimum standard of conduct. Certain acts are defined as unlawful and punished as crimes. Other acts, though not criminal, are yet so far subject to the disapproval of the courts that the man who does them may have to compensate those who suffer injury or damage in consequence of them. ...
— Britain at Bay • Spenser Wilkinson

... pressure of want, there yet remains at the bottom of an immense amount of work an inner push different from that outer constraint, an inner need as fruitful as the outer one is wasteful: there remains the satisfaction in work, the wish to work. However outer necessity, "competition," "minimum of cost," "iron law of wages," call it what you choose, direct and misdirect, through need of bread or greed of luxury, the application of human activity, that activity has to be there, and with it its ...
— Laurus Nobilis - Chapters on Art and Life • Vernon Lee

... feet. On the other hand, there is an increasing number of employers who feel their responsibility to those who are in their employ, and, except in the department stores, they are usually associated personally with their employees. Welfare work is not uncommon in the large establishments, and a minimum wage is being adopted here ...
— Society - Its Origin and Development • Henry Kalloch Rowe

... motion is constantly kept up, which wedges forwardly with sufficient speed to compel momentum to maintain it in flight. To do so requires but a small amount of energy. The head resistance of the bird formation is reduced to a minimum, and at such high speeds the angle of incidence of the wings is very small, requiring but little aid to maintain it ...
— Aeroplanes • J. S. Zerbe***

... been done with practically nothing on preempted land, though I'm rather dubious. In your case, I'd fix five thousand dollars as the minimum; more ...
— Ranching for Sylvia • Harold Bindloss

... the hours of rising and retiring, namely, regulating the minimum period to be devoted to sleep. There is much conflict of opinion as to the amount of sleep necessary for the average adult. We have in mind an old saying which runs as follows: "Six hours' sleep for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for ...
— The Royal Road to Health • Chas. A. Tyrrell

... subject. Coleridge says, in his "Table Talk," that a maxim is a conclusion upon observation of matters of fact; we may add that it is final, it goes as far as it can possibly go, and contains the maximum of truth in the minimum of verbiage. If we take some of the most cynical and savage maxims of La Rochefoucauld we may see that conciseness could proceed no further: for instance, "Virtue is a rouge that women add to their beauty"; or "Pride knows no law and self-love no debt"; or "The pleasure of love is loving." The ...
— Three French Moralists and The Gallantry of France • Edmund Gosse

... hundred and forty acres—each. The ranges, townships, and sections were duly numbered. The basis for the whole system of public education in the Northwest was laid by providing that in every township lot No. 16 should be reserved for the maintenance of public schools therein. A minimum price of a dollar an acre was put on ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume Three - The Founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790 • Theodore Roosevelt

... vegetable mind that it could live its own life apart from the vine, twisting its various fibres into all kinds of knots and snarls, according to its own idea of living, so that the sap from the main stem could only reach it in a minimum quantity. What a dearth of leaf, flower, and fruit would appear in the branch! Yet the figure is perfectly illustrative of the way in which most of us are interfering with the best use of ...
— Power Through Repose • Annie Payson Call

... more exposed parts the more dangerous. The distinguishing feature of the neighbourhood is the abundance of lemon trees in the small valleys watered by mountain streams. The annual yield of the trees amounts to 30 million lemons, of which the minimum price is from 12 to 15 frs. ...
— The South of France—East Half • Charles Bertram Black

... purport. Many affections which art has to strive against might be easily shown to be vital to the well-being of society. Hydrocephalus, tabes mesenterica, and other similar maladies, are natural agencies which cut off the children of races that are sinking below the decent minimum which nature has established as the condition of viability, before they reach the age of reproduction. They are really not so much diseases, as manifestations of congenital incapacity for life; the race would be ruined if art could ever learn always to preserve ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... not lick him as flies do, but they sting him, and by the same token no one ever sees bees crawling on meat and blood and grease, as flies do. And so they only settle in places of sweet savour. They do a minimum of damage because in their harvesting they leave what they touch none the worse.[204] They are not so cowardly as not to resist who ever attempts to disturb them, and yet they are fully conscious of their own weakness. They are called the Winged Servants of ...
— Roman Farm Management - The Treatises Of Cato And Varro • Marcus Porcius Cato

... voted for railways of only local utility. There is other no less important expenditure necessitated also by electioneering considerations. The law instituting workingmen's pensions will soon involve a minimum annual outlay of 165 millions, according to the Minister of Finance, and of 800 millions according to the academician M. Leroy-Beaulieu. It is evident that the continued growth of expenditure of this kind must end in bankruptcy. Many European countries—Portugal, Greece, ...
— The Crowd • Gustave le Bon

... in fact. Those who would examine the proofs of this must turn to my book on The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments. There I have written purely as an archaeologist, who belongs to no theological school, and consequently readers of the work must see in it merely the irreducible minimum of confidence in the historical trustworthiness of the Old Testament, with which oriental archaeology can be satisfied. But it is obvious that this irreducible minimum is a good deal less than what a fair-minded historian will admit. The archaeological facts support the traditional rather than ...
— Patriarchal Palestine • Archibald Henry Sayce

... totus quam respicit orbis; Celsior una malis, et quam damnare ruinae Nunc quoque fata timent,—alieno in litore resto. Tertius annus abit; toties mutavimus hostem: Saevit hyems pelago, morbisque furentibus aestas; Et minimum est quod fecit Iber,—crudelior armis In nos orta lues,—nullum est sine funere funus. Nec perimit mors una semel:—Fortuna quid haeres? Qua mercede tenes mixtos in sanguine manes? Quis tumulos moriens hos occupet hoste perempto? Queritur,—et ...
— The Life of Hugo Grotius • Charles Butler

... lawful, in case such town or place shall be incorporated, for the corporate authorities thereof, and if not incorporated, for the judges of the county court for the county in which such town may be situated, to enter at the proper land office, and at the minimum price, the land so settled and occupied, in trust for the several use and benefit of the several occupants thereof, according to their respective interests; the execution of which trust, as to the disposal of the ...
— Minnesota and Dacotah • C.C. Andrews

... much in favour of books that make animals talk as though they were little human beings, but in this book such language is used only to the very minimum, just enough to make the animals' activities meaningful. For the rest the birds mostly make their appointed noises. But I did enjoy the skylark's song. And once Fenn had put in one song it was inevitable that ...
— Featherland - How the Birds lived at Greenlawn • George Manville Fenn

... matter of justice to loyal citizens, but on the ground of the importance of retaining for the national cause the support of the Border States, to act in such manner that the loyal citizens of these States should be exposed to a minimum loss and to the smallest possible risk of disaffection. In July, 1862, Lincoln formulated a proposition for compensated emancipation. It was his idea that the nation should make payment of an appraised value in freeing the slaves that were in the ...
— Abraham Lincoln • George Haven Putnam

... ranges lower than that of Greenland, the thermometer often showing a minimum of 70 deg. below freezing-point of Fahrenheit. The climate is too severe to ripen any cereals, and the flora ...
— With the Harmony to Labrador - Notes Of A Visit To The Moravian Mission Stations On The North-East - Coast Of Labrador • Benjamin La Trobe

... was disallowed in England, but other grants of great value were obtained with little difficulty. Patents were easily obtained, but they did not become effective until the land was "settled" by clearing and cultivating a minimum tract. For a poor man this was the chief obstacle to acquiring a great estate; but a rich man was often able to avoid it altogether. In 1688, Byrd secured a patent for 3313 acres. He failed to "settle" it and the title lapsed. ...
— Beginnings of the American People • Carl Lotus Becker

... it inserts any which are needless. The precise peculiarity is not merely that no incidental circumstance is inserted which does not tell on the main design: no art is fit to be called art which permits a stroke to be put in without an object; but that only the minimum of such circumstance is inserted at all. The form is sometimes said to be bare, the accessories are sometimes said to be invisible, because the appendages are so choice that the shape ...
— English Critical Essays - Nineteenth Century • Various

... Departments of Agriculture and of Commerce and Labor may play in ridding the markets of Europe of prohibitions and discriminations against the importation of our products is fully understood, and it is hoped that the use of the maximum and minimum feature of our tariff law to be soon passed will be effective to remove many of ...
— United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches - From Washington to George W. Bush • Various

... to the minimum of work required, it is suggested that at least one lesson be taught from the subjects outlined under each general heading in the detailed Course of Study, with a minimum average of three lessons from the subjects under each ...
— Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Nature Study • Ontario Ministry of Education

... consistently governed the policy of His Majesty's Government in directing the methods to be employed, when military action in support of civil authority is required, may be broadly stated as using the minimum force necessary. His Majesty's Government are determined that this principle shall remain the primary factor of policy whenever circumstances unfortunately necessitate the suppression of civil disorder by military force within the ...
— India, Old and New • Sir Valentine Chirol

... during each crossing, he did his best and made himself very charming indeed, to keep his hand in,—for the same reason that he kept a dummy keyboard in his stateroom, somewhere down in the bowels of the boat. He practised all the small economies; paid the minimum rate, and never took a deck chair, because, as Horace was usually in the cardroom, he could ...
— Youth and the Bright Medusa • Willa Cather

... winegrower is never sure of what his expenses may be—the making, the duty, the casks—while the returns depend on a scorching day or a sudden frost. Small owners, like us, whose income is far from being fixed, must base their estimates on their minimum, for they have no means of making up a deficit or a loss. What would become of us if a wine merchant became bankrupt? In my opinion, promissory notes are so many cabbage-leaves. To live as we are living, we ought always to have a year's income ...
— Parisians in the Country - The Illustrious Gaudissart, and The Muse of the Department • Honore de Balzac

... we eat is partly a matter of habit. There is doubtless a minimum of nourishment which is absolutely necessary for health and strength. On the other hand there is doubtless a maximum limit which cannot be passed without serious injury. Our bodies seem to demand the amount of food to ...
— Increasing Efficiency In Business • Walter Dill Scott

... expedition was composed exclusively of infantry divisions carrying the latest type of automatic rifle. The field commissaries, the ambulances, the baggagetrains, had to be cut to the barest minimum and General Thario wrote that evidently because of the impossibility of taking along artillery the enemy had also abandoned their light and heavy machineguns. Against this determined threat, behind ...
— Greener Than You Think • Ward Moore

... differentiation in the courses of study in our high schools. It is encouraging to see that in many States the high schools, academies and colleges are coming to a helpful understanding of each other's province, and that there is a practical agreement among them regarding a uniform minimum requirement for entrance into the Freshman class ...
— Colleges in America • John Marshall Barker

... preparation of fatty acids is extensively used in France for the production of stearine for candle-manufacture, but the resulting product is liable to be dark coloured, and to yield a dark soap. To expose the acids to heat for a minimum of time, and so prevent discoloration, Mannig has patented (Germ. Pat. 160,111) a process whereby steam under a pressure of 8 to 10 atmospheres is projected against a baffle plate mounted in a closed vessel, where it mixes with the fat or oil in the ...
— The Handbook of Soap Manufacture • W. H. Simmons

... the greater the quantity of matter dealt with. It proceeds by concentration and compression. The organizing act, on the contrary, has something explosive about it: it needs at the beginning the smallest possible place, a minimum of matter, as if the organizing forces only entered space reluctantly. The spermatozoon, which sets in motion the evolutionary process of the embryonic life, is one of the smallest cells of the organism; and it is only a small part of the spermatozoon ...
— Creative Evolution • Henri Bergson

... This minimum of right the German Government has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity, and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these, which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throwing ...
— Why We are at War • Woodrow Wilson

... no plant so unproductive as this—and their seedlings next year produced two, and so on, then in twenty years there would be a million plants. The elephant is reckoned the slowest breeder of all known animals, and I have taken some pains to estimate its probable minimum rate of natural increase; it will be safest to assume that it begins breeding when thirty years old, and goes on breeding till ninety years old, bringing forth six young in the interval, and surviving till one hundred years old; if this be so, after a period of from 740 to 750 years there ...
— On the Origin of Species - 6th Edition • Charles Darwin

... persecutors; two years in which he was always under a strain, always having to control his anger, to be patient and sweet-tempered amidst a thousand vexations; two years, moreover, in which the bodily exercise he was used to, and which he needed as every growing boy needs it, was cut down to a minimum; two such years would have broken the health even of a grown, strong man. And Stanislaus was not a grown, strong man, but a boy of sixteen. It is remarkable that he should have held out so long. It shows what courage and goodness and trust in God can do. But finally, towards the end of November, ...
— For Greater Things: The story of Saint Stanislaus Kostka • William T. Kane, S.J.

... prospect of people proposing names for this planet on box-tops! They were planning five million prize-money—and who'd be afraid of us then? But I turned it down because we haven't got a helicopter. We couldn't stage enough different shows from this planet to keep it going the minimum six weeks for a contest like that. Instead, we're taking off in a couple of hours. Jones agrees. The astronomers back home have picked out another Sol-type star that ought to have planets. We're going to run over and see what pickings we can find. ...
— Operation: Outer Space • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... being somewhat overhauled, refitted, etc., in the British dock-yard here. Navy yards are much the same the world over, I guess. I will say, however, that they have dealt with us quickly and efficiently, with the minimum of red tape and correspondence. We have become in fact an integral part of the British Navy. Admiral Sims is in general supervision of us, but we are directly in command of the British Admiral commanding the station. Of the U-boat situation, I may say little. ...
— World's War Events, Volume III • Various

... the nervous unrest by removing all unnecessary sensory stimulation from the baby. He must be in a warm cot, in a warm, well-aired, darkened, and silent room, and the necessary handling must be reduced to a minimum. Sometimes sound sleep will come for the first time if he is placed gently in his mother's bed, close to her warm body. If he is apt to bungle at the breast from eagerness and restlessness, it is not wise always to choose the moment when he has roused ...
— The Nervous Child • Hector Charles Cameron

... literature. Much that is announced declares itself at once of merely ephemeral import, or even of no import at all; but what masses of print which invite the attention of thoughtful or studious folk! To the multitude is offered a long succession of classic authors, in beautiful form, at a minimum cost; never were such treasures so cheaply and so gracefully set before all who can prize them. For the wealthy, there are volumes magnificent; lordly editions; works of art whereon have been lavished care ...
— The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft • George Gissing

... was done in 1816. The studies were Latin, Greek, German, mathematics, history, geography, religion, and science, the amount of time to be devoted to each ranging, in the order listed, from a maximum for Latin to a minimum for science. Up to 1824 Greek was not absolutely required; from 1824 to 1837 it was required, unless the substitution of a modern language was permitted; but after 1837, when the type of German secondary school ...
— THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION • ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY

... was a crude affair, built at the minimum of expense, of crooked cottonwood poles, willow sticks and brush interlaced. It was divided into three sections, with a chute running from the larger division into two ...
— The Fighting Shepherdess • Caroline Lockhart

... earn an income from the farm if I had a farmhouse without modern improvements," Mrs. Tupper declared. "Reducing drudgery to a minimum is only plain business sense. Laundry work, scrubbing, and dishwashing have a low economic value. Such unskilled labor eats up the time and strength one needs for the more profitable and interesting tasks of farm management, accounting ...
— How To Write Special Feature Articles • Willard Grosvenor Bleyer

... was entitled to a farm with a minimum of 6000 acres of the "Transvaal," and this custom of apportioning 6000-acre farms lasted as long as the Kaffir lands lasted. The Boers, always working on the principle that "God helps those who help themselves," helped themselves ...
— South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 1 (of 6) - From the Foundation of Cape Colony to the Boer Ultimatum - of 9th Oct. 1899 • Louis Creswicke

... bottom as a rock hog, a mucker, a clean-up man in the newly opened 80th Level. And his wages were the minimum union scale. ...
— Second Sight • Basil Eugene Wells

... popularity under any other conductor excepting Hans Richter. One of the traits to which he owes his great success as a Wagner conductor is his instinctive perception of what parts can be omitted with the minimum of injury to the work he is interpreting. Except at Bayreuth, Wagner's later works did not especially prosper at first, because they were either too long or injudiciously cut. Herr Seidl, however, succeeded with them everywhere. One time Wagner wrote to ...
— Chopin and Other Musical Essays • Henry T. Finck

... prevention of the excessive exploitation of female and child labor, and of children of school age. In this the interests of the working class coincides with the interests of the State, of humanity, in general, and of civilization. When we see the State compelled to lower the minimum requirements for military service—as happened several times during the last decades, the last time in 1893, when the army was to be further increased—and we see such lowering of the minimum requirements resorted to for the reason that, as a result ...
— Woman under socialism • August Bebel

... second century; the Emperor Marcus Aurelius himself was a prominent adherent of the creed. This later Stoicism differs, however, somewhat from the earlier. It limits the scientific apparatus which the early Stoics had operated with to a minimum, and is almost exclusively concerned with practical ethics on a religious basis. Its religion is that of ordinary Stoicism: Pantheism and belief in Providence. But, on the whole, it takes up a more sympathetic attitude towards ...
— Atheism in Pagan Antiquity • A. B. Drachmann

... can," Captain Brisco replied. "I'll shorten sail down to the minimum; that will keep us before the wind, and out of the trough of the sea! More I can't do. We must depend on them to pick us up. They ought to be able to do it. You told me ...
— The Moving Picture Girls at Sea - or, A Pictured Shipwreck That Became Real • Laura Lee Hope

... the questions as well as I could, begging off on the plea that I was only a poor devil of a painter with a minimum knowledge ofsuch matters, and ended by referring ...
— Colonel Carter of Cartersville • F. Hopkinson Smith

... income; that of the Hippeus, horseman or knight, at a sum equal to ten times his annual income: that of the Zeugite, at a sum equal to five times his annual income. Thus a Pentacosiomedimnus, whose income was exactly 500 drachmas (the minimum qualification of his class), stood rated in the schedule for a taxable property of 6,000 drachmas or one talent, being twelve times his income—if his annual income were 1,000 drachmas, he would stand rated ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1 • Various

... his library fire and shivered, and kept wondering why there was no clause in the city charter prescribing a minimum of common sense for presidents of the Board of Education. A man thus qualified would know more than to suggest an increase of three million dollars for school sittings. The city's comptroller was crying bankruptcy; the ...
— The Patient Observer - And His Friends • Simeon Strunsky

... Rezeigat tribes; while there have been no known new abductions of Dinka by members of Baggara tribes in the last few years, inter-tribal abductions continue in southern Sudan tier rating: Tier 3 - Sudan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; combating human trafficking through law enforcement or prevention measures was not a priority for ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... its advantages. In case of disagreeable matters the go-between can say the disagreeable things in the third person, reducing the unpleasant utterances to a minimum. ...
— Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic • Sidney L. Gulick

... eyed with profound respect. "An independent nomination for Congress requires at least a thousand signers who must be electors of the district. We've ample time; it's a good three weeks before we need file our certificate with the Secretary of State, and a fortnight would answer to secure the minimum. But we'll not content ourselves with the minimum; the greater our list of signers, the stronger our argument in the campaign. Voters are gregarious, ...
— The Henchman • Mark Lee Luther

... dockyards. He it was who turned out the ships that fought Philip's fleet in the Channel in such condition that not a hull leaked, not a spar was sprung, not a rope parted at an unseasonable moment, and this at a minimum of cost. He served himself in the squadron which he had equipped. He was one of the small group of admirals who met that Sunday afternoon in the cabin of the ark Raleigh and sent the fire-ships down to stir Medina Sidonia out of his anchorage at Calais. He was ...
— English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century - Lectures Delivered at Oxford Easter Terms 1893-4 • James Anthony Froude

... that it was plain that for the time, at least, the United States would be alone in its attempt to bring about the greater use of the white metal. In the meantime the law was put into operation, and the secretary of the treasury exercised his option by purchasing the minimum amount, two million dollars' worth of bullion. It was impossible to keep the coins in circulation, however, mainly because of their weight, and the policy was therefore adopted of storing part of the silver in the government vaults and issuing paper "silver certificates" in its place. As these ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley

... in the kitchen. And after the minimum time had elapsed during which all three talked at once recounting their ...
— Ladies Must Live • Alice Duer Miller

... another hitch of the chair nearer Carton and lowered his voice impressively. "The point, sir, at which I am driving is simply this. There must be some way in which we can reach an agreement, compromise this case, satisfactorily to the people with a minimum of time and expense—some way in which the indictment or the pleadings can be amended so that it can be wound up and—you understand—both of us win—instead of dragging it out and perhaps you losing ...
— The Ear in the Wall • Arthur B. Reeve

... amiable, but wise at least in its intentions, in the use which it has made of subject peoples hitherto. It is true, a somewhat accentuated eagerness on the part of the Imperial establishment to get the maximum service in a minimum of time and at a minimum cost from these subject populations,—as, e.g., in Silesia and Poland, in Schleswig-Holstein, in Alsace-Lorraine, or in its African and Oceanic possessions,—has at times led to practices ...
— An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Peace And The Terms Of Its Perpetuation • Thorstein Veblen

... et regnata petam Laconi Rura Phalantho. 12 Ille terrarum mihi praeter omnes Angulus ridt, ubi non Hymetto Mella decedunt viridique certat Baca Venafro, 16 Ver ubi longum tepidasque praebet Iuppiter brumas et amicus Aulon Fertili Baccho minimum Falernis Invidet uvis. 20 Ille te mecum locus et beatae Postulant arces, ibi tu calentem Debita sparges lacrima ...
— Helps to Latin Translation at Sight • Edmund Luce

... would result in somewhat over 3 per cent of saving in the coal for equal boiler efficiencies. As a boiler with a properly designed superheater placed within the setting is more economical for a given capacity than a boiler without a superheater, the minimum gain in the coal consumption would be, say, 4 or 5 per cent as compared to a plant with the same boilers ...
— Steam, Its Generation and Use • Babcock & Wilcox Co.

... a small hole in the lath-and-plaster wall which separates the ward from the ward's kitchen. Through this hole a length of cotton was passed and tied to the handle of a mug on the kitchen shelf. At this period, owing to the Zeppelin raids, only the barest minimum of light was allowed, and the night nurse, when she entered the kitchen, went into almost complete darkness. No sooner was she in the kitchen and fumbling for what she required than a faint noise—that of the cup being twitched ...
— Observations of an Orderly - Some Glimpses of Life and Work in an English War Hospital • Ward Muir

... punished." In addition to this latitude the penalty for seduction or enticing for purposes of prostitution is, if the girl is under 15, imprisonment in the penitentiary not more than five years, or in the county jail not more than one year, or by fine not exceeding $1,000, or both; with no minimum penalty. ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV • Various

... into use. Progress has been made in providing materials for 74-gun ships.' [Footnote: A ship-of the-line, meaning a battleship or man-of war strong enough to take a position in the line of battle, was of a different minimum size at different periods. The tendency towards increase of size existed a century ago as well as to-day. 'Fourth-rates,' of 50 and 60 guns, dropped out of the line at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. In 1812 the 74-gun three-decker was the smallest man-of-war ...
— The War With the United States - A Chronicle of 1812 - Volume 14 (of 32) in the series Chronicles of Canada • William Wood

... Culebra Cut to an indefinite width in the deep waters of the lakes. The approaches from deep water to land on both sides of the Canal are 500 feet wide, and the cuts in the shallow parts of the lakes from 500 to 1,000 feet wide. The Canal has a minimum depth ...
— People's Handy Atlas of the World - 1910 Census Edition • Unknown

... maximum of scenery and the minimum of weather; California, which grows the biggest men, trees, vegetables and fleas in the world, and the most beautiful women, babies, flowers and fruits; California, which, on the side, delivers a yearly crop of athletes, boxers, tennis players, swimmers, runners and a yearly crop of geniuses, ...
— The Californiacs • Inez Haynes Irwin

... personal interest in it, because I saw it long ago, and I have been rather proud of thinking that you were making use of me. I wish you would think the matter over, and decide to go on with your picture of Miss Maybough. I promise to reduce my criticism to a minimum, for I think it is more important that you should keep on in your own way, even if you go a little wrong in it, now and then, than that you should go perfectly right in some one's else. Do let me hear from you, and say that I may come Saturday to ...
— The Coast of Bohemia • William Dean Howells

... that a minimum amount of material or "critical mass" be brought together in contact for the nuclear explosion to take place. The more efficient fission weapons tend to fall in the yield range of tens of kilotons. Higher explosive yields become increasingly ...
— Worldwide Effects of Nuclear War: Some Perspectives • United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

... of commendation for the prisoner and his family and states that "he was not without the sympathy of those who attended the trial." Though Dillingham committed a crime to which the death penalty was attached in some of the States, the jury affixed the minimum penalty of three years' imprisonment for the offense. As Nashville was far removed from Quaker influence or any sort of anti-slavery propaganda, Dillingham was himself astonished and was profoundly grateful for the leniency ...
— The Anti-Slavery Crusade - Volume 28 In The Chronicles Of America Series • Jesse Macy

... constantly in mind the fact that all volumetric operations, to be exact, should be carried out as nearly at a constant temperature as is practicable. The spot selected for such work should therefore be subject to a minimum of temperature variations, and should have as nearly the average temperature of the laboratory as is possible. In all work, whether of calibration, standardization, or analysis, the temperature of the liquids employed must be taken into account, and if the temperature of these liquids varies ...
— An Introductory Course of Quantitative Chemical Analysis - With Explanatory Notes • Henry P. Talbot

... of these became the diocese of a bishop, who was looked upon as an officer of the state and was to be elected by the people. The priests, too, were to be chosen by the people, and their salaries were much increased, so that even in the smallest villages they received over twice the minimum amount paid under ...
— An Introduction to the History of Western Europe • James Harvey Robinson

... of ceremony is called "Istikbal" (coming forth to greet) and is regulated by the severest laws of etiquette. As a rule the greater the distance (which may be a minimum of one step) the higher the honour. Easterns infinitely despise strangers who ignore these ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... word. Second, embodied in this as the speaker utters it, associated to it as the hearer understands it, is its meaning. The meaning is either an idea of a concrete thing or situation, or an abstraction. This is the irreducible minimum of a word, but is seldom all. For, in poetry, some emotional response to the object meant by the word impels to its utterance, and this is embodied in it when it is uttered, and a similar feeling is awakened in the auditor when it is heard or read. ...
— The Principles Of Aesthetics • Dewitt H. Parker

... society is bent on producing art—and the society that does not produce live art is damned—there is one thing, and one only, that it can do. Guarantee to every citizen, whether he works or whether he loafs, a bare minimum of existence—say sixpence a day and a bed in the common dosshouse. Let the artist be a beggar living on public charity. Give to the industrious practical workers the sort of things they like, big salaries, short hours, social consideration, ...
— Art • Clive Bell

... coachmen's hats? To sweep the foul sidewalks with the heaviest silks which the toiling artisans of France can send us? To look through plate-glass windows, and pity the brown soldiers,—or sneer at the black ones? to reduce the speed of trotting horses a second or two below its old minimum? to color meerschaums? to flaunt in laces, and sparkle in diamonds? to dredge our maidens' hair with gold-dust? to float through life, the passive shuttlecocks of fashion, from the avenues to the beaches, and back again from the beaches to the avenues? Was it for this that the ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... conception and realization of this fresh and extended disposition the French command, in the first place, had to reduce to a minimum the needs for effectives of our armies to the east of the Oise, and afterwards to utilize to the utmost our means of transport. It succeeded in this, and when, at the end of October, the battle of Flanders ...
— World's War Events, Vol. I • Various

... depends on the volume and continuity of the flowing stream, on the aridity of the country through which they are cut, and on the rock-formation. A fierce and continuous torrent, where the rainfall is at the minimum, will so speedily outrival the forces of erosion that the canyon will have vertical walls. An example is seen in those frequent "mud" canyons found in arid regions, where some brook, having its source in highlands, cuts a channel ...
— The Romance of the Colorado River • Frederick S. Dellenbaugh

... the existence of the endowment. Some regulations are necessary in order that the tenure of the property of the Society may be secure and that its funds may not be misapplied, and the brief code of statutes is directed to these ends. Walter de Merton's earliest rules make the minimum of change in existing conditions. But the preparation of this code of statutes must have suggested to the Founder that his generosity gave him the power of making more elaborate provisions. The Mendicant Orders had already established at Oxford ...
— Life in the Medieval University • Robert S. Rait

... volunteered for service as a scout. He had only done so, of course, because the post seemed to offer certain relaxations from the austerity of company routine—a little more freedom of movement, a little less trench-digging, and a minimum of supervision. He would have been thankful for ...
— The First Hundred Thousand • Ian Hay

... all the iron and steel now produced in France is being turned into war material and materials required for other purposes have been furnished in a minimum and scanty way. In other words, the whole of the iron and steel interests in France have been mobilized by ...
— A Journey Through France in War Time • Joseph G. Butler, Jr.

... far as the isolated individual housekeeper is concerned, by the mere establishing of its value in use. As the systematic effort of every rational individual in his household management is directed towards the obtaining, by a minimum of sacrifice of pleasure and energy, a maximum satisfaction of his wants, even an Adam or a Crusoe is, in his economy, compelled to estimate not only what the goods to be acquired accomplish (value ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • William Roscher

... then Giorgione can be divided up between a dozen Venetian artists, who "painted Giorgione." Fortunately three pictures survive which refuse to be fitted in anywhere else except under "Giorgione." This is the irreducible minimum, [Greek: o anankaiotatos] Giorgione, with ...
— Giorgione • Herbert Cook

... in their way, are no whit less earnest and self-sacrificing than sanctity, equally look upon sleep as a wasteful concession to bodily wants, and equally incline to limit such concession to its mere minimum. Commonplaces accordingly are perpetually circulating in the newspapers, especially in such as pretend to a didactic tone, wherein all persons are exhorted to early rising, to resolute abridgment of the hours ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 43, May, 1861 • Various

... be sure, the internal secretion of the thyroid is not absolutely essential to life. So it contrasts with the hormone of the minute parathyroids placed so closely to it, a minimum dose of which is absolutely a prerequisite for continued life. The fundamental chemical reactions within the cells occur in the complete absense of thyroxin. But they go on in a relatively fixed, rigid and unvarying way, confined within the narrow limits of a constant ...
— The Glands Regulating Personality • Louis Berman, M.D.

... a pencil and quickly sketched out the production steps. By machine-spacing the transmitting and the receiving transducers as closely together as possible, with minimum clearance, the plastic coating could do an even better job of absorbing sonar pings than ...
— Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung • Victor Appleton

... minimum; let us pass to Guyenne; here it is, this figure like a calf walking on one leg. Of course, you will not be astonished to find discontent in Guyenne; it is an old focus for revolt, and will be enchanted to rise. They can furnish 8,000 soldiers; ...
— Chicot the Jester - [An abridged translation of "La dame de Monsoreau"] • Alexandre Dumas

... work on Primitive Culture, has devoted a good part of two large volumes to the treatment of early religious belief. While recognizing that there is no complete definition of religion, he holds that "belief in spiritual beings" is a minimum definition which will apply to all religions, and, indeed, about the only one that will. The lower races each had simple notions of the spiritual world. They believed in a soul and its existence after ...
— History of Human Society • Frank W. Blackmar

... dark; yet there was light enough to see, and even distinguish broad effects. I had no difficulty in distinguishing the Tower towards which we were moving, and that, after all, was the main thing. We drifted slowly, very slowly, as the air was still, and I only used the minimum pressure necessary for the engine. I think I now understood for the first time the extraordinary value of the engine with which my Kitson was equipped. It was noiseless, it was practically of no weight, and it allowed the machine ...
— The Lady of the Shroud • Bram Stoker

... the child does not need," he says, "they will destroy the child's faith in their sympathetic understanding." The educator is to "bring the child into relations and surroundings in all respects adapted to him" but affording a minimum of opportunity of injury, "guarding and protecting" but not interfering, unless he is certain that healthy development has already been interrupted. It is somewhat remarkable that Froebel anticipated even the conclusions of modern psycho-analysis in his views about childish faults. ...
— The Child Under Eight • E.R. Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith

... envoys had been limited by their instructions. Five thousand foot and one thousand horse serving at the Queen's expense till the war should be concluded, over and above the garrisons for such cautionary towns as should be agreed upon; this was considered, by the States, the minimum. The Queen held out for giving only four thousand foot and four hundred horse, and for deducting the garrisons even from this slender force. As guarantee for the expense thus to be incurred, she required that Flushing and Brill should be placed in her ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... instance, what we know as colour is the vibration frequency of etheric waves striking on the retina of the eye, between certain definite limits—759 trillions of blows from the maximum, 436 trillions from the minimum—these waves give rise in us to the sensation which the brain translates into colour. (Why the 436 trillion blows at one end of a nerve become 'Red' at the other end we do not know; we chronicle the fact but cannot explain it.) But our capacity to respond to the vibration ...
— Annie Besant - An Autobiography • Annie Besant

... blood more frequent. Still there also are in southern Italy certain cases where criminality of the blood is less frequent, and you cannot explain this in any other way than by the influence of racial character. If you take a geographical map of manslaughter in Italy, you will see that from the minimum, from Lombardy, Piedmont, and Venice, the intensity increases until it reaches its maximum in the insular and peninsular extreme of the south. But even there you will find certain cases in which ...
— The Positive School of Criminology - Three Lectures Given at the University of Naples, Italy on April 22, 23 and 24, 1901 • Enrico Ferri

... recommendations of the Worcester meeting as the groundwork of new legislation, it does not touch on several of them; they were, so far as I remember (for I have no memoranda to refer to) an extension of the weekly and annual close time—minimum penalties: —a close time for Trout, and a right of way on the banks of Salmon rivers for all water-bailiffs, duly appointed, without their being deemed guilty of trespass; and a tax on fishery nets and implements, for the purpose of defraying the ...
— Essays in Natural History and Agriculture • Thomas Garnett

... which they are forced to live—is a craving for amusement and relaxation. Amusements for this class are not provided; they can laugh, they rarely do. The thing that they seek—let me repeat: I cannot repeat it too often—in the minimum of time that remains to them, is distraction. They do not want to read; they do not want to study; they are too tired to concentrate. How can you expect it? I heard a manufacturer say: "We gave ...
— The Woman Who Toils - Being the Experiences of Two Gentlewomen as Factory Girls • Mrs. John Van Vorst and Marie Van Vorst

... arisen through the suggestions of non-Euclidean geometry. Given a body of geometrical propositions, it is not difficult to find a minimum statement of the axioms from which this body of propositions can be deduced. It is also not difficult, by dropping or altering some of these axioms, to obtain a more general or a different geometry, having, from the point of view of pure mathematics, the same logical coherence and the ...
— Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays • Bertrand Russell

... immediately around me, for I have hardly strayed five miles from my own door since I arrived. There is always so much to do in settling one's self in a new home. This time, I am bound to say, the difficulties have been reduced to a minimum, not only from the prompt kindness and helpfulness of my charming neighbors, but because I found excellent servants ready to my hand, instead of needing to go through the laborious process of training them. The cooks are very good—better indeed ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. • Various

... librarians must live is at least as obvious in their case as in that of any other class. They must also, if they are to be of any use, be educated. In 1878 the late Mr. Robert Harrison, who for many years led a grimy life in the London Library, advocated L250 as a minimum annual salary for a competent librarian. But, as Mr. Ogle, of Bootle, pertinently asked at the Conference, 'Are his views yet accepted?' We fear ...
— In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays • Augustine Birrell

... banks and shoals within sight of the Jamestown fort. During the 1609-10 "starving time" a minimum force was retained at the settlement while everyone else was turned out to forage as best he could. Most sought the oyster grounds where they ate oysters nine weeks, a diet varied only by a pitifully negligible allowance of ...
— The Bounty of the Chesapeake - Fishing in Colonial Virginia • James Wharton

... would hardly suit every student. Nevertheless it has in its general features some merits. In the first place, the only way to learn is to find for yourself where the difficulties are; and this can be done most effectually by beginning with the minimum of help. With notes, there is always the temptation to look at the note first and the text afterwards: a process sure to result in slipshod and inaccurate knowledge. Take a canto at a time, and read it through. Go over the ...
— Dante: His Times and His Work • Arthur John Butler

... only to be making an excuse to reject his brother; while, on the other hand, he knew that Raymond had not been satisfied with Frank's London habits, nor had he himself been at ease as to his religious practices, which certainly had been the minimum required to suit his mother's notions. He had been a communicant on Christmas Day, but he was so entirely out of reach that there was no knowing what difference his illness might have made in him; Eleonora might know more than his own family did, and have good and conscientious ...
— The Three Brides • Charlotte M. Yonge

... anything similar was going to afford the people leisure, he would go the evening before to one of the Caesarians who lived near the places where there was sure to be a large crowd and there pass the night. His object was to make it possible for the people to meet him with a minimum of formality and fatigue. The equestrian contests he would often watch in person from the house of some freedman. He attended the spectacles very frequently in order to do honor to those who gave them ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol. 4 • Cassius Dio

... the 1st of September that the comet had crossed the orbit of Jupiter, and on the 1st of October the two bodies were calculated to be at their minimum separation. No direct shock, however, could be apprehended; the demonstration was sufficiently complete that the orbit of Gallia did not coincide with that of the planet, the orbit of Jupiter being inclined at an angle of 1 degrees 19 mins to the orbit of ...
— Off on a Comet • Jules Verne

... the use of 1/2c stamps, for only about one-third as many were used in the year following the publication of the circular. Finally, on May 19th, 1909, the Post Office Act was amended so that the special rate on newspapers was repealed and the minimum postage on any single piece of mail became 1c. This did away for the necessity of 1/2c stamps and, of course, discounted any further possibility of the value being included in the King's ...
— The Stamps of Canada • Bertram Poole

... gradually to something almost contemptible. Examinations for degrees at the two great Universities have generally been as slender in their requirements as those for honors are trying and serious. Where there is no inducement to exceed a certain minimum, the minimum comes to be the maximum: it becomes the general practice not to aim at more; and as in every thing there are some who do not attain all they aim at, however low the standard may be pitched, there are always several who fall short of it. When, on the contrary, ...
— Considerations on Representative Government • John Stuart Mill

... "profitable investments," which yielded literally nothing, had been freely made for many a year, and the sole results were money difficulties and debt. The European financiers had managed admirably for their shareholders; but, having assumed the annual national income at a maximum, instead of a minimum, they had brought the goose of the golden eggs to the very verge of death. The actionnaires were to receive, with a punctuality hardly possible in the East, the usurious interest of six per cent., not including one per cent. for sinking fund. Meanwhile, ...
— The Land of Midian, Vol. 1 • Richard Burton

... location of new railways and the improvement of lines already in operation, it is now well recognized that large economies can be effected by the careful study of train resistance due to grades and alignment, distributing this resistance so as to secure a minimum cost of operation with the means ...
— Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXX, Dec. 1910 • Beverly S. Randolph



Words linked to "Minimum" :   stripped, maximal, minimum wage, minimise, borderline, extremum, token, maximum and minimum thermometer, peak, maximum, negligible, marginal, nominal, stripped-down, small indefinite amount, small indefinite quantity, tokenish, skeleton, limit, minimize



Copyright © 2024 e-Free Translation.com