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Inferior in bulk, degree, importance, etc.; less; smaller; of little account; as, minor divisions of a body.

A custom or right, analogous to borough-English in England, formerly existing in various parts of Europe, and surviving in parts of Germany and Austria, by which certain entailed estates, as a homestead and adjacent land, descend to the youngest male heir.

To diminish. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

A diminution. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

See Franciscan Nuns, under Franciscan, a.

A Franciscan friar.

The state of being a minor, or under age.

An illuminator of manuscripts and books; a limner. [Obs.] Cowell.

A nominator. [Obs.] Bentham.

The name of the sixth tone in the model major scale (that in C), or the first tone of the minor scale, which is named after it the scale in A minor. The second string of the violin is tuned to the A in the treble staff. -- A sharp (A#) is the name of a musical tone intermediate between A and B. -- A flat (A) is the n…

A syllogism or form of argument in which the major is evident, but the minor is only probable.

A genus of herbaceous prickly plants, found in the south of Europe, Asia Minor, and India; bear's-breech.

One who has received the highest of the four minor orders in the Catholic church, being ordained to carry the wine and water and the lights at the Mass.

Of or pertaining to Æolia or Æolis, in Asia Minor, colonized by the Greeks, or to its inhabitants; æolic; as, the Æolian dialect.

A city of Asia Minor (or Anatolia) which has given its name to a goat, a cat, etc. Angora cat (Zoöl.), a variety of the domestic cat with very long and silky hair, generally of the brownish white color. Called also Angola cat. See Cat. -- Angora goat (Zoöl.), a variety of the domestic goat, reared for its long silky h…

The Grecian Archipelago, or Ægean Sea, separating Greece from Asia Minor. It is studded with a vast number of small islands.

The minor or second proposition in a categorical syllogism.

planets whose orbits lie between those of Mars and Jupiter; -- called also planetoids and minor planets.

ifth above, or dominant, its fifth below (fourth above), or subdominant, and its relative minor or major.

cle, which has an infinite number. The two axes of the ellipse are the major axis and the minor axis, and the two axes of the hyperbola are the transverse axis and the conjugate axis. -- Axis of a lens, the straight line passing through its center and perpendicular to its surfaces. -- Axis of a telescope or microscop…