exiguous, a.
(ɛgˈzɪgjuːəs)
[f. L. exigu-us scanty in measure or number (f. exigĕre to weigh strictly: see exact v.) + -ous.]
Scanty in measure or number; extremely small, diminutive, minute.
| 1651 Biggs New Disp. ¶141 Of great vertue, yet of an exiguous quantity. 1654 tr. Scudery's Curia Pol. 39 If they have any being, it is so exiguous, that it is scarce visible. a 1708 J. Philips Fall of Chloe's Jordan 100 Protected mice, The race exiguous..Their mansions quit. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. v. v, The soldier's pay is in the highest degree exiguous; not above three half-pence a day. 1882 Pall Mall G. 23 May 3 The judgment of the House of Lords on the exiguous point raised by the Bordesley appeal. |
Hence eˈxiguousness = exiguity.
| 1730–6 Bailey (folio), Exiguousness, littleness, smallness. 1755 in Ash. 1888 Sat. Rev. 22 Sept. 352/1, No. 1, though its apparent exiguousness might suggest a different conclusion, is a number of the highest importance. |