minus

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   involving disadvantage or harm

   minus (or negative) factors

2. 2
   adj

   on the negative side or lower end of a scale

   minus 5 degrees

3. 3
   prep

   Made less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).

   Seven minus two is five.

4. 4
   prep

   Without; deprived of.

   I walked out minus my coat.

5. 5
   noun

   The minus sign (−).

   On the third day a Master Barnard brings me up a slate full of plusses, minusses, x, y, z’s, and other letters of the alphabet, in a most amiable algebraical confusion.

6. 6
   noun

   A downside or disadvantage.

   He valued Roderick’s friendship with the highest value he put on anything nowadays. Over the years they had assessed each other’s plusses and minusses and settled for the difference.

7. 7
   adj

   Being a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction.

   a minus number

8. 8
   adj

   That is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale.

   minus seven degrees

Etymology

From Middle English mynus, from Latin minus, neuter form of minor, comparative form of parvus (“small, little”), from the Proto-Indo-European root *mey- (“few, small”).