Home English to Spanish small

Translation of small in Spanish:

small

pequeño, adj.

Pronunciation /smɔl/ /smɔːl/

See Spanish definition of pequeño

adjective smaller, smallest

  • 1

    • 1.1(in size)

      pequeño
      chico mainly Latin America
      a small doll — una muñeca pequeña
      • cut it up small — córtalo en trocitos (pequeños)
      • he's got very small feet indeed — tiene los pies pequeñísimos
      • she's got a small waist — tiene una cintura muy estrecha
      • she's small for her age — es muy chiquita para su edad
      • small letters — letras minúsculas
      • small capitals — versalitas
      • Its high performance in a small case size also means that the costs can be reduced by using fewer or smaller capacitors.
      • The precision of variance components is reduced when sample size is small.
      • Staff revealed that four ovens were situated on the ground floor, two electric and two gas, each the same size as a small car.
      • In Baywatch, the crews inhabit beach towers the size of a small house.
      • My back was scratched up from the ground and I had a tiny bruise in the corner of my eye, about the size of a small pea.
      • The male moorhen about the same size as a small chicken was close to death when walkers spotted him bobbing in the River Ray.
      • In fact the engine is the size of a small piano, makes considerably more noise, and pumps out 400 bhp.
      • Each of the rooms is the size of a small apartment with a big bathroom, including a bathtub and hot water.
      • Other parents said the small class sizes helped their children with their academic achievements.
      • What you're feeling is the size of a small cushion, curving upwards under your lungs.
      • I have slept little in cramped aeroplane seats and gloriously on motel beds the size of a small European farm.
      • They are of different sizes, most of them about the size of a small lemon, but round in shape.
      • But during an operation the vet found a ball bearing in the eye socket, the size of a small marble.
      • In the middle of the white wormy thing, which fills the entire shell, is a green blob about the size of a small sprout.
      • On one wall is a typical American fridge, the size of a small office block.
      • Any left over pastry was made into very small balls, the size of a walnut and dropped into the simmering water.
      • Five days in, his feet had turned purple with pus-filled blisters the size of small plums.
      • The key device, which is about the size of a small box of wooden matches, slides into a slot in the dashboard.
      • We watched a chunk of ice crash into the sea fairly close to us, which was the size of a small home.
      • They are small mines, the size of tennis balls, made of plastic so you can't detect them.

    • 1.2(in number, amount, value)

      (family) pequeño
      (family) chico mainly Latin America
      (sum/price) módico
      (sum/price) reducido
      a small quantity — una pequeña cantidad
      • he's a small eater — come poco
      • Both areas were receiving small amounts of money over the years but little progress was being made.
      • Prior to the euro, some countries used notes for quite small amounts of money.
      • It is making me ridiculously happy, so it must have been worth the small amount of money I spent.
      • The message I want to get across is that what seems like a small amount of money over here can make a huge difference over there.
      • Districts should receive a small amount of money for each child who participates.
      • While they were out on one particular date he forced entry and stole a small amount of money.
      • Also take a small amount of paper money as well, for taxis from the airport and so forth.
      • If the insulation is burnt off the copper wiring, it can be sold for a small amount of money.
      • He spun the usual hard luck story that his family were hungry so I agreed to advance him a small amount of money.
      • He has been included as a party only because there was a small amount of money involved from his point of view.
      • I was not referring to that case, which involves a relatively small amount of money.
      • The good news is that books can be bought for relatively small amounts of money.
      • When you are dealing with a small amount of money versus the value of the property I am saying that it does not have an impact.
      • They have said that families and other people can invest a small amount of money and get a huge return.
      • I was provided with a small amount of money and within a year three drafts had been written.
      • For most people, it makes sense to invest small amounts of money on a regular basis, say, monthly.
      • I was cut off from making the small amount of money that had really made the difference in my family's life.
      • To keep it in good shape visitors to it are requested to pay a small amount of money to have a look inside.
      • They are usually played for a small amount of money, and there is no process of betting to raise the stake.
      • In fact, it would put only a small amount of money into the hands of those who really need it.

    • 1.3(not much)

      they have small chance/hope of succeeding — tienen pocas probabilidades/esperanzas de lograrlo
      • I hear you've passed — yes, small thanks to you — veo que has aprobado — no será gracias a ti
      • small wonder! — no es de extrañar

  • 2

    (in scale)
    pequeño
    the small investor/businessman — el pequeño inversionista/empresario
    • The study showed that small business owners and managers felt they came up with seven good ideas a month.
    • It is appealing for other small business owners to pay for booklets for their local school.
    • He said the experience gave him a new appreciation for small business owners.
    • I understand you're planning an event aimed at owners of small businesses this week.
    • As a small business owner, one of the most important relationships you are likely to form will be with your bank manager.
    • The fund also aims to improve access for unemployed residents to the job market and aid the small business community.
    • Many small business bosses are either too busy to activate their export potential or do not recognise that it exists.
    • But as a small business we can only improve our services if the services that are run get the support of the public.
    • But it was aimed mainly at attracting small business and we needed to replace thousands of lost jobs.
    • If these proposals go ahead they're going to hit small businesses hard.
    • For one thing, small businesses are not big enough to maintain regulatory compliance departments.
    • So what we consider a small business I think has changed over the last 10 years or so.
    • That's a feeling many have in small business and it will play on people's minds.
    • There's a small business near here that specialises in collecting wrecked cars from all around the county.
    • The clients range from big chain stores, government right down to small businesses.
    • How often do you have the time to chase up all those bad debts, especially if you're a small business?
    • I would work with big and small businesses, bringing them together with local bodies such as the council.
    • There are thousands and thousands of small businesses, all of them related together in a complex pattern.
    • Initially the system is seen as most suitable for small businesses, and promises to be a tenth of the cost of leased lines.
    • The roof will be a garden, covered with spice and herb plants from around the world and would be a focus for small businesses.

  • 3

    • 3.1(unimportant, trivial)

      (mistake/problem) pequeño
      (mistake/problem) de poca importancia
      there are still a few small points to be cleared up — todavía quedan algunos puntos de poca importancia por aclarar
      • The flowers seem small and insignificant during the day but at twilight they glow in the fading light and look beautiful.
      • He was small and insignificant but had a firearm trained on my navel.
      • The peaks of Glen Shiel loomed over and made me feel deliciously small and insignificant.
      • I shudder to think of the way my small, insignificant encounter would be treated today.
      • In universal terms it is a small, insignificant star, fairly average in the great scheme of things.
      • As little Josie walked down the street, she began to feel quite small and insignificant.
      • Any news, no matter how small or insignificant, could take our minds away for just a moment.
      • But these small inconsistencies in the plot do not take much away from what is an excellent film.
      • It's a small problem affecting a trivial number of people who effectively choose to be affected.
      • He makes his presence small, flattens his childish ego into something still and insignificant.
      • No fact is to small to overlook, no nugget of information too insignificant to discard.
      • Conversely, something that initially seems a small and minor incident you might want to ratchet up the scale.
      • The law is not mindful of small things or trivial things.
      • There was even a lineup at the counter for the small, trivial things like coffee.
      • The only small and minor complaint I have is the gravity of the situation to which the response given is.
      • Since then he has clocked up a number of small parts in minor television dramas and films.
      • Now, it might seem a small argument over a minor, obscure piece of parliamentary procedure.
      • One small planning decision, one minor infringement of a long-forgotten legacy.
      • We're a small country, a long way away, with a minor role to play on the world stage.
      • All in all he harboured only minor concerns, and these occupied only a small part of him as a whole.

    • 3.2(humble, modest)

      they started in a small way — empezaron de forma muy modesta
      • I'd like to help in some small way — me gustaría ayudar de alguna manera
      • start exercising in a small way — empiece a hacer ejercicio poco a poco
      • I won't do it again, he said in a small voice — —no lo volveré a hacer— dijo en un hilo de voz

adverb smaller, smallest

  • 1

    (of size)
    she writes so small — escribe tan pequeñito
    • the virtue of thinking small — la ventaja de no pensar a lo grande
    • start small — empieza por poco / por cosas pequeñas
    • It started out small and kept on expanding until it became one of the largest universities in the region.
    • The US may grumble that Europe talks big and acts small, but that is pretty much what Washington wants.

noun

informal, dated
British

  • 1smalls plural

    ropa interior feminine
    paños menores masculine humorous
    • Do we know if secreted about his smalls he has a pair of boxer shorts in either the ancient or red tartan of his venerable clanspersons?
    • Most retail philistines won't quite see what all the fuss is about; smalls are smalls, they murmur, no matter where they are sold.
    • If I could now ask you to drop your trousers and smalls…
    • After she sent him photographs of herself in her smalls he decided to up-sticks to the States to be with her.
    • As the Lost Sock Diner is located next door to the laundromat at the foot of Edinburgh's oh-so-trendy (though over-rated) Broughton Street, you can clean your smalls while you munch your eggs.
    • The moment he's sitting in his smalls centre stage, rocking backwards and forwards, moaning to himself, a suggestion is made that perhaps it's time to get out of Dodge.
    • No good, my smalls were destined to be scrutinised.
    • I should just try to buy some smalls that aren't black…
    • But rather than put on tracksuits, the players stay in their smalls.
    • Shopper at the next till down, also clutching a big pile of smalls: ‘Mine are going further than yours.’
    • I'm still not sure about that (when I think of sharing pleasure, I visualise a tube of Pringles) but buying smalls is even beginning to seem like it could be fun.
    • When the lavandera came knocking, I was only too happy to give her my jeans and sheets and towels for washing - though I kept my smalls and still did them myself.
    • In order to make life easier for all you men out there this Christmas, he undertook some painstaking research into the dos and don'ts of buying smalls for your loved one.
    • That makes her quite different from most actresses of her generation, who seem to treat their job like a bit of a giggle between being photographed in their smalls for lad mags.
    • Of course you could just do some washing - but you don't really want the hassle of washing your smalls when you're trying to enjoy yourself, do you?
    • When it comes to our long-term partners, however, we want them to look chaste, freshly laundered and clean when they strip down to their smalls.
    • As I scurried to retrieve my smalls, the whirr of a dozen camera motor drives signalled that the whole unhappy episode was being captured on film.
    • The surest way to set the heart pounding and the palms sweating is to get a sudden mental flash of the person you are meant to be interviewing sitting in their smalls.
    • There are greying smalls on the radiator; dishes are piled higher in the sink than a prestigious Dubai development.
    • Surely most of us would rather eat a week's worth of room-service leftovers than have a stranger handle our smalls?
    • Now you see this is the sort of tradition you want, a timeless prohibition on wringing out strangers' smalls.
    • The market place for sex toys and smalls, it seems, is anything but small and the three companies have much in common.
    • Well, how many plumbers can say they've had twenty pound notes stuffed down their smalls by bored city types?
    • After all, what better place can you think of to wash your smalls and do your weekly shop than down your local?
    • I now know for certain that our smalls do far more than just cover our modesty and keep out cold draughts.
    • Where is the fun of slithering into layers of lacy surprises for your partner if he already sees the make, colour and size of your smalls?
    • Laundry was a constant bane, so we washed our smalls and hung them on lines strung underneath the top bunk.
    • Perhaps some such atavistic feelings persist in Britain today about the position of someone who does personal services, such as rinsing people's smalls.
    • And also, it's good to be reminded that my smalls haven't always resembled a Second World War parachute.
    • They do their best to look casual and nonchalant whilst walking through someone else's back yard and (in Steve's case) leaning on a washing line filled with women's smalls.
    • Jean in a London laundromat, wryly observes: ‘I squandered my life's savings to watch my smalls go round.’
    • I bought all sizes of covers at once; if I was in a pinch and my smalls were all in the wash, I could use a medium to hold us over until laundry was done.
    • Apparently, the idea of extreme ironing as a competitive sport began life in the back garden of a terraced house in Leicester, when a young man decided to iron his smalls outdoors.