[
UK
/lˈɛs/
]
[ US /ˈɫɛs/ ]
[ US /ˈɫɛs/ ]
ADJECTIVE
-
(usually preceded by `no') lower in quality
no less than perfect -
(comparative of `little' usually used with mass nouns) a quantifier meaning not as great in amount or degree
of less importance
less time to spend with the family
less than three years old
a shower uses less water -
(nonstandard in some uses but often idiomatic with measure phrases) fewer
in 25 words or less
no less than 50 people attended
less than three weeks
ADVERB
-
comparative of little
he works less these days
she walks less than she should -
used to form the comparative of some adjectives and adverbs
less expensive
less interesting
less quickly
How To Use less In A Sentence
- The only seriously bad bit is that you become less agile and less strong. Times, Sunday Times
- Laura Wade's Posh, timed to open as the Tories edged into power in May 2010, reminded us just what we were in for: overprivileged hooligans in drinking-society blazers who trash a pub as thoughtlessly as they will trash the country. Dominic Cooke: a life in theatre
- Which is stupid, considering the drivers around here A: Don't normally stop for people and in fact have been caught trying to sneak ~around~ them and B: I've been nicked several times and almost hit three times different instances last summer attempting to obey the biking laws, none of those for mistakes on my part as I've been scared shitless at the lack of aware driving that's crept over my town. The funny thing about Pain..... (Let's talk trauma!)
- The pain in his side was crushing, as if there was a steel hand in there relentlessly closing on an organ. THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS
- He asked me bluntly, ‘Why would you want to leave private life and take on such a difficult, dangerous and probably thankless job?’
- To supplement his income, he taught private voice lessons in his home and sang in a church choir.
- Unless contraindicated, prophylaxis with a gastrointestinal motility stimulant laxative and a stool softener is appropriate in terminally ill patients who are being given opioids.
- It might as well be closed, because in many American hospitals you're simply shooed from the windowsill after you've been nursed back to health (usually in 72 hours or less), and you're expected to "fly" on your own. Mark Lachs, M.D.: Care Transitions: The Hazards of Going In and Coming Out of the Hospital
- The bombardment of the GPO had fascinated MacMurrough: the annunciatory puffs of smoke and the flames that roared to greet them; then the crashing gun’s report, the shell’s eruption—an illogical sequence, effect before cause, an object lesson in the madness of war. At Swim, Two Boys
- Unless the radar signal is normal to some surface (extremely low probability) the radar receives no return.