mite

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various small or minute arachnids of the order Acarina that are often parasitic on animals and plants, infest stored food products, and in some species transmit disease.
2. n. A very small contribution or amount of money.
3. n. A widow's mite.
4. n. A very small object, creature, or particle.
5. n. A coin of very small value, especially an obsolete British coin worth half a farthing.
6. idiom. a mite To a small degree; somewhat: That remark was a mite unfair.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A small arachnidan of the order Acarida; any acarid. Mites once formed a comprehensive genus Acarus or family Acaridœ, terms not yet obsolete; but, with the introduction of many more genera, the establishment of several families, and the elevation of the group to the rank of an order, a more elaborate nomenclature has been established, in which neither Acarus nor Acaridœ is retained. (See Acarida.) Adult mites are eight-legged like most arachnidans; but some six-legged immature forms at one time constituted a supposed genus Leptus. (See Leptus, and cut under harvest-tick.) The species of mites are very numerous, diversified in form, and various in habits. Many are parasitic; others are terrestrial or aquatic; others live in cheese, flour, sugar, etc. Mite is consequently much used in composition. The cheese-mite or fiour-mite is Tyroglyphus siro or T. longior; the sugar-mite is Glyciphaga prunorum, or another of the same genus. Such mites compose the family Tyroglyphidœ, and are among those longer known as species of Acarus or Acaridœ. Itch-mites are Sarcoptidœ, as Sarcoptes scabiei. (See cut under itch-mite.) Mangemites are Demodiciœ garden-mites or harvest-mites, Trombidiidœ; spinning-mites, Tetranychidœ beetle-mites or wood-mites, Oribatidœ spider-mites, Gamasidœ; water-mites, Hydrachnidœ; snout-mites, Bdelldœ; gall-mites, Phytoptidœ. Certain mites, the Ixodidœ, are commonly distinguished as ticks, as Ixodes ricinus (see cut under Acarida), and those of the family Trombidiidœ are indifferently called harvest-mites, harvest-ticks, harvest-bugs, red-bugs, and by other names. See the compound and technical names.
2. n. Some insect like or likened to a mite, as a dust-louse (Psocus).
3. n. A small coin of any kind, of slight value; any very small sum of money. No coin seems to have been so called specifically.
4. n. An English weight somewhat heavier than a grain troy.
5. n. An old money of account, the twenty-fourth part of a penny.
6. n. Anything very small; a very little particle or quantity: also applied to persons.
7. n. A copper or billon coin of very small value, current in Brabant and Holland.

Wiktionary

1. n. A minute arachnid, of the order Acarina, of which there are many species; as, the cheese mite, sugar mite, harvest mite, etc. See Acarina.
2. n. A small coin formerly circulated in England, rated at about a third of a farthing. The name is also applied to the lepton, a small coin used in Palestine in the time of Christ.
3. n. A small weight; one twentieth of a grain.
4. n. Anything very small; a minute object; a very little quantity or particle. Sometimes used adverbially.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A minute arachnid, of the order Acarina, of which there are many species; See acarina.
2. n. A small coin formerly circulated in England, rated at about a third of a farthing. The name is also applied to a small coin used in Palestine in the time of Christ.
3. n. A small weight; one twentieth of a grain.
4. n. Anything very small; a minute object; a very little quantity or particle.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a slight but appreciable amount
2. n. any of numerous very small to minute arachnids often infesting animals or plants or stored foods