Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A very small quantity or portion; a bit or mite: "a smidgen of genius, a sliver of cutting truth” ( John Simon).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small piece; a small quantity.
Wiktionary
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tiny or scarcely detectable amount
Etymologies
- Probably alteration of dialectal smitch, particle, perhaps ultimately from Middle English smite, perhaps from past participle of smiten, to smite; see smite. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Grace’s mug was filled with what she described as a smidgen of coffee and lots of half-and-half, permitted on her Atkins program.”
“My favorite of the three by a smidgen is the 2003 Riesling Spätlese Trocken Haardter Bürgergarten “Im Aspen.””
“It is this "smidgen" that catches the eye, compelling us to look twice and look long.”
“Nelson made a surprise appearance off the bench and finished with six points and four assists, activated just before the game despite General Manager Otis Smith saying he had a "smidgen" of a chance to play.”
“I agree with this, with maybe a "smidgen" more confidence than Fitch has with Obama (but not by much) there are people who argue intelligently that the recent "Government bailout of Wall Street" was a capitulation to socialism.”
“When begged for the recipe for her incomparable noodles, she will be no more specific with measurements than "a half-eggshell" of water and a "smidgen" of salt.”
“If we all stopped watching these endless and ridiculous chef programmes on TV reducing cooking to a smidgen of this and that sizzling in a pan, whilst we eat a take away, then we may get out and do something.”
“Okay, at the risk of revealing my soggy, maudlin underbelly ... this made me a smidgen weepy.”
“If you have not a smidgen of interest in how Platonic philosophy relates to the "many worlds" version of quantum mechanics, you still may like this novel, though you'll probably wish that the characters talked less.”
“But with the stock just a smidgen below its all-time high, investors should wait for a better opportunity to get in the door.”
The Wall Street Journal: Private Label Comes With a Health Warning
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘smidgen’.
-
Imprecise Units of Measurement
A list of terms for units of measurement that are less than exact, such as dessert-spoonful.
two shakes, dessert-spoonful, a pinch, a bit, some, smidge, smidgin, dollop, drop, fleck, smack, sprinkling and 187 more...
-
essbunny@gmail.com's list
Intrigued by these words...
sphincter, blush, flume, shingle, spurt, pulp, precious, squeal, zest, zeal, cherish, fervor and 35 more...
-
the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
-
eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
-
word set 2
preemptively, crocodilian, gyrator, wallowing, sodbusters, electrification, manganese, swabbing, plummeted, silhouetting, careening, frothy and 101 more...
-
bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
-
Words that delight me
tepid, perfunctory, trope, benign, inordinate, bewildering, ersatz, boon, delectable, apt, scuttlebutt, sequester and 398 more...
-
stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
-
5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
-
kevincooper's Words
prosopopeia, lisle, magisterial, zeitgeist, zeugma, bloviate, apocryphal, bon mot, cacophony, euphony, brigandier, micturition and 313 more...
-
Valse's Words
fastidious, fervent, bellicose, personification, onomatopoeia, burly, concomitant, tempura, serendipity, pecuniary, foment, chum and 418 more...
-
useful vocab
pysmatic, relentless, storge, preamble, oscillate, itinerary, frolic, frolicsome, abdicate, frolicking, divergent, abnegate and 312 more...
-
cozycowgirl's Words
perseverate, personification, wiggle, luscious, yar, onomatopoeia, tangecize, juncture, lyrical, hindsight, identify, usurp and 42 more...
-
The Little Things
minutiae, thingamajig, wee, doodad, nuts 'n' bolts, widget, speck, mote, mite, modicum, iota, nano and 7 more...
-
tiger's words
oscillate, serendipitous, wabi, oxymoron, brobdingnagian, quixotic, callipygian, schadenfreude, serendipity, spleen, surreptitious, perspicacious and 46 more...
-
Nashisms
Snips and snippets of Nash found here and there...
mouseholed, winda, pyrate, realio, jangling squirm, lllama, pyjama, trulio, flickering indeci..., ilk, narra, prepoceros and 18 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for smidgen.

oroboros A half pinch; 1/32 of a teaspoon. Jul 25, 2009