What's the difference between little and subtle?

Little


Definition:

  • (a.) Small in size or extent; not big; diminutive; -- opposed to big or large; as, a little body; a little animal; a little piece of ground; a little hill; a little distance; a little child.
  • (a.) Short in duration; brief; as, a little sleep.
  • (a.) Small in quantity or amount; not much; as, a little food; a little air or water.
  • (a.) Small in dignity, power, or importance; not great; insignificant; contemptible.
  • (a.) Small in force or efficiency; not strong; weak; slight; inconsiderable; as, little attention or exertion;little effort; little care or diligence.
  • (a.) Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow; shallow; contracted; mean; illiberal; ungenerous.
  • (n.) That which is little; a small quantity, amount, space, or the like.
  • (n.) A small degree or scale; miniature.
  • (adv.) In a small quantity or degree; not much; slightly; somewhat; -- often with a preceding it.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Prior to oral feeding, little or no ELA was detected in stools and endotoxinemia was ascertained in only six of 45 infants (13%).
  • (2) 8.43am BST A little more from that Field interview on Today.
  • (3) The omission of Crossrail 2 from the Conservative manifesto , in which other infrastructure projects were listed, was the clearest sign yet that there is little appetite in a Theresa May government for another London-based scheme.
  • (4) Not only do they give employers no reason to turn them into proper jobs, but mini-jobs offer workers little incentive to work more because then they would have to pay tax.
  • (5) Some commentators have described his ship, now facing more delays after a decade in development, as little more than a Heath Robinson machine.
  • (6) Marked enhancement of IFN-gamma production by T cells was seen in the presence of as little as 0.3% thymic DC.
  • (7) The origin of the aorta and pulmonary artery from the right ventricle is a complicated and little studied congenital cardiac malformation.
  • (8) Today’s figures tell us little about the timing of the first increase in interest rates, which will depend on bigger picture news on domestic growth, pay trends and perceived downside risks in the global economy,” he said.
  • (9) It is a place that occupies two thirds of our planet but very little is known of vast swaths of it.
  • (10) The authors conclude that H. pylori alone causes little or no effect on an intact gastric mucosa in the rat, that either intact organisms or bacteria-free filtrates cause similar prolongation and delayed healing of pre-existing ulcers with active chronic inflammation, and that the presence of predisposing factors leading to disruption of gastric mucosal integrity may be required for the H. pylori enhancement of inflammation and tissue damage in the stomach.
  • (11) Furthermore, little DNA relatedness was found between the type strain and a strain of C. natalensis.
  • (12) Displacement of a colinear line over the same range without an offset evoked little, if any, response.
  • (13) Little is so far known of the origin of this syndrome.
  • (14) Known as the Little House in the Garden, this temporary structure lasted over 50 years.
  • (15) Little difference exists between the proportion of programs that offer training in first-trimester techniques and the proportion that train in second-trimester techniques.
  • (16) A study of the time-course of the response during aortic stenosis of 30 min duration showed early release of renin from the innervated kidney at a time (5 min) when little release occurred from the denervated one.
  • (17) She loved us and we loved her.” “We would have loved to have had a little grandchild from her,” she says sadly.
  • (18) Likewise, they had little or no effects on the fluorescence anisotropy of TMA-DPH, which is also thought to be located in the interfacial region of the lipid bilayer, either when the probe was located in the outer layer of the plasma membrane or when the probe was located in the inner membrane compartment.
  • (19) Stimulation with these electrodes were effective for inducing voiding with little residual volume after the recovery of bladder reflexes, 3 weeks after experimental spinal cord injury in the dog.
  • (20) Technical manipulations to improve resolution were time consuming and added little to the accuracy of the test.

Subtle


Definition:

  • (superl.) Sly in design; artful; cunning; insinuating; subtile; -- applied to persons; as, a subtle foe.
  • (superl.) Cunningly devised; crafty; treacherous; as, a subtle stratagem.
  • (superl.) Characterized by refinement and niceness in drawing distinctions; nicely discriminating; -- said of persons; as, a subtle logician; refined; tenuous; sinuous; insinuating; hence, penetrative or pervasive; -- said of the mind; its faculties, or its operations; as, a subtle intellect; a subtle imagination; a subtle process of thought; also, difficult of apprehension; elusive.
  • (superl.) Smooth and deceptive.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) As a group, the three mammalian proteins resemble bovine serum conglutinin and behave as lectins with rather broad sugar specificities directed at certain non-reducing terminal N-acetylglucosamine, mannose, glucose and fucose residues, but with subtle differences in fine specificities.
  • (2) But it will be a subtle difference, because it's already abundantly clear there's no danger of the war being suddenly forgotten, or made to seem irrelevant to our sense of what Europe and the world has to avoid repeating.
  • (3) Communicating sustainability is a subtle attempt at doing good Read more And yet, in environmental terms it is infinitely preferable to prevent waste altogether, rather than recycle it.
  • (4) If, indeed, there is an immunologic basis for pre-eclampsia, it is more subtle than the methodology used in this study is capable of detecting.
  • (5) Subtle differences between Chicago urban and Grand Forks rural climates are reflected in arthritic subjects' degree of pain and their perception of pain-related stress.
  • (6) Critical in this understanding are the subtle changes that occur in the individual patient, reflecting the natural history of the disease or response to its treatment.
  • (7) Subtle cognitive deficits in Inferential Reading Comprehension were detected when Reading Vocabulary was at or better than a twelfth grade level.
  • (8) This histochemical difference corresponded to more subtle differences in Nissl and myelin staining patterns, and suggests further structural subdivisions of potential functional significance.
  • (9) Thus, luciferase transcriptional fusions can detect subtle variations in initial rates of gene expression in a real-time, nondestructive assay.
  • (10) The binding of [3H]PAF to washed human platelets indicated subtle changes between Days 2 and 4, which became more noticeable by Day 6.
  • (11) In this study the temperature dependence of the reactivity of aldolase SH groups is investigated in order to detect subtle changes in the enzyme conformation.
  • (12) The crucial issue of whether subtle behavioral, intellectual, and developmental impairment occurs in young children, as a result of lead-induced CNS damage is discussed in detail.
  • (13) Historically, what made SNL’s campaign coverage so necessary was its ability to highlight the subtle absurdities of the election and exaggerate the ridiculous.
  • (14) It is believed that by looking at such subtle shape differences an understanding of what it means morphologically for a primate to be either more or less arboreal may be achieved.
  • (15) The current magnetic resonance imaging system with computerized image processing is a sensitive and simple method for evaluation of subtle parenchymal changes of the brain.
  • (16) Fundus examination disclosed a subtle cherry red spot bilaterally.
  • (17) Ependymal cells developed luminal fronds that projected into the ventricle and the subpial glia displayed a very subtle gliosis in the form of thin multi-laminated processes.
  • (18) The rapidity of obtaining the results (within one hour), the complete absence of untoward reactions to the radiopharmaceuticals, the much lower frequency of subtle or indeterminate results, the ability to render useful information in the presence of moderate jaundice and the lack of interference from overlying intestinal contents establishes these radionuclide agents as superior to both radiographic oral and intravenous cholangiography in the investigation of the acute abdomen.
  • (19) Moreover, subtle improvements observed in earlier investigations were not confirmed.
  • (20) Various compounds show subtle but significant differences in blood clearance, excretion, and soft-tissue uptake.