Lexic.us

Definition of More or less

1. Adverb. (of quantities) imprecise but fairly close to correct. "20 or so people were at the party"

2. Adverb. To a small degree or extent. "The children argued because one slice of cake was slightly larger than the other"

Definition of More or less

1. Adverb. approximately ¹

2. Adverb. almost ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of More Or Less

mordication mordications mordicative more'n more(a) more-or-less more Catholic than the Pope more and more more cry than wool more equal

more haste, less speed more like more like it more often than not more or less (current term) more power to your elbow more so more than more than one can poke a stick at more than one can shake a stick at

more than you can shake a stick at moreen moreens morefold moreish morel moreland morelands morelle

Literary usage of More or less

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Republic of Plato by Plato, Benjamin Jowett (1881)
"Whereupon they proceed to make a law which fixes a sum of money as the qualification of citizenship; the money is more or less accordingly as the oligarchy ..."

2. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1918)
"ECHINOIDEA, ek-i-noi'de-a, or SEA URCHINS, a class of Echinodermata with a more or less spheroidal or discoidal body enclosed in a continuous test or shell ..."

3. Journal by Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain) (1875)
"Is there more or less of dry dust from tho surface, and is it more or less ... Are the accidents more or less serious ?—Less injurious in broken knees and ..."

4. The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle (1891)
"Now, if they say this because one may be more or less pleased, then the same thing may be said of justice and the other virtues; for it is plain that, ..."

5. Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science (1904)
"It need hardly be pointed out at this late day, though it is more or less persistently ignored, that primitive Darwinism, while essaying to explain the ..."

6. The Lancet (1898)
"It feels with the surgeon's finger in the rectum when recent like a depression in the walls of the bowel and when of long standing more or less indurated. ..."

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