smalls
- 1Small pieces of underwear, like underpants and socks.
She hung her smalls on the radiator to dry overnight.
He stuffed his smalls into the washing machine before the trip.
Similarunderwear, undies, underclothes, underthings
Note
- 2Plural of small. Use it when talking about more than one small thing.
The shop ran out of smalls, so only medium and large shirts remained.
Sort the smalls from the larges before you stack the boxes.
Note
- 3Small things that are sold, like little items in a shop.
The market stall was crammed with smalls: buttons, ribbons, and cheap trinkets.
He made a modest living selling smalls from a tray on the street corner.
Similartrinkets, knick-knacks, oddments, notions
Note
- 4Short for small ads. In British English, the little classified ads in newspapers.
She found a secondhand bike through the smalls in the local paper.
He placed an ad in the smalls to sell his old record collection.
Note
- 5The form of small used in the present with he, she, it, or a singular noun such as the dog or water.
Note
Less common meaning
- 6The first exam students took at Oxford University before their degree.
Like a first test you have to pass before you can start the main course of study.
He crammed all summer and barely scraped through his smalls.
She passed her smalls with ease and moved on to the honors school.
Note
Showing meanings only.
smalls is a form of small
small, noun: The size called small, below medium, for clothes or drinks, or something in that size, or a person who wears it. Full entry
- Forms
- smallsmalls plural
- Spelling
- small → smalls: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of smalls apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
This word comes from the word "small."