Meanings
- Somewhat small.
I may say that I'm a married man, living with my wife at that address—a smallish flat which suits us very well as we have no children.
1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries1 more example
Quite a few minutes would be spun out, for instance, at the smallish town of Chirk, but to me the dalliance was generally worthwhile, except in wet weather, because of the increasing beauty of the wooded hill scenery thereabouts.
1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, page 18
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishsmalish
- Englishsmallish
From Middle English smalish, equivalent to small + -ish.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish pienehkö
- pienehkösomewhat small
German eher klein, ziemlich klein
- eher kleinsomewhat small
- ziemlich kleinsomewhat small
Greek μικρούτσικος
- μικρούτσικος (mikroútsikos)somewhat small
Hungarian kisebbszerű
- kisebbszerűsomewhat small
Portuguese pequenito
- pequenitosomewhat small
Swedish ganska liten
- ganska litensomewhat small
Cite this entry
smallish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smallish
“smallish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smallish. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “smallish,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smallish.
Source: smallish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.