leetle
(ˈliːt(ə)l)
a jocular imitation of a hesitating or deliberately emphatic pronunciation of little.
| 1687 Phillips Don Quixote 496 The Taylour..held up five leetle Cloaks. 1755 Johnson Grammar in Dict. c j, There is another form of diminution among the English, by lessening the sound itself, especially of vowels; as there is a form of augmenting them [sic] by enlarging, or even lengthening it;..as..little pronounced long, lee-tle. 1835 B. Hofland in L'Estrange Friendships Miss Mitford (1882) I. xi. 280 A gentleman, somewhat a leetle too much dressed. 1838 Dickens O. Twist ii, Just a leetle drop, with a little cold water, and a lump of sugar. 1894 G. W. Appleton Co-respondent I. 45, I am sure he went just a leetle wrong. |