Citations:mity

English citations of mitiest and mity

• 1853, Snellius Schickhardus (pseudonym), Tales of the Forest: containing, The Lotus-Walker; and, The Spoiler’s Doom, “Notes to The Lotus-Walker”, page xxxi, note to page 64, line 9:

  “The cheeses of Cheshire,” saith our good friend Snellius, taking up the subject, “are the mitiest in the world.” The author has expressed with infinite delicacy of tact, that the smile on the cheek of virtue could entice to walk of its own accord, a mighty, yea the mitiest of the offspring, i.e., cheeses of Cheshire.

• 1881, William Tait Ross, Waifs: A Handful of Essays and Sketches, J. Maclehose, pages 125–126:

  I envy no man his great possessions, for I may derive as much pleasure from the verdant lawns, the waving woods, and breezy mouutain slopes as the proprietor himself; and, then, I am saved the cares of ownership (unless, indeed, the same proprietor, with a superfluous politeness for which I don’t thank him, puts up a “board” for my perusal, kindly informing me that, if found trespassing on these grounds, I will be prosecuted according to law); I envy not, neither do I despise, the titles of rank, for the man who most deserves a title, and wears it most worthily, is he who feels what a mere outside accident it is — like an artificial flower in a lady’s bonnet — being no part of him; I do not even envy the mighty Provost of a small country town, who, being the greatest man in his little world, may be supposed to be near the acme of felicity as it is possible to attain beneath the moon (with regard to a cheese, for example, which is in itself a microcosm, I have no doubt the biggest mite feels much elated by the thought that he is mitiest of the mity in his own sphere) — but I do envy the equanimity, matter of course assumption of superiority, and cool ease often attained without an effort, by Ignorance, and which frequently in the battle of life leaves modest Knowledge far in the background.

• 1841–1886, Asa Gray (author), Charles Sprague Sargent (editor), Scientific Papers of Asa Gray, volume II: Essays, Biographical Sketches; 1841–1886 (1889), Houghton Mifflin, page 477:

  I do feel gratified that I have at last made the mitiest mite of a contribution to science. I know how extremely minute it is.

• 1912, Hamilton Wright Mabie, Boys’ and Girls’ Bookshelf: Fun and Thought for Little Folk, page 121:

  He ‛s smaller than the mitiest mite; // The only way he comes in sight // Is when he ‛s pictured in a book, // Or through a microbescope you look.