mickle
Syllables: mick·le/ˈmɪk(ə)l/US/ˈmɪkəl/
mickle adjective: (Very) great or large.
Adjective
mickle (comparative more mickle, superlative most mickle)
- (Very) great or large.
- Oh mickle is the powerfull grace that lies / In hearbes, plants, ſtones, and their true qualities: / For nought ſo vile, that vile on earth doth liue, / But to the earth ſome ſpeciall good doth giue: […]c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]
- O Jupiter! whose ſtrength is mickle, / Was ever man in ſuch a pickle!1772, [Thomas Bridges], “Homer’s Iliad. Book VIII.”, in A Burlesque Translation of Homer, London: Printed for S. Hooper, […], →OCLC, page 325
- Synonyms:
- muckle
Adverb
mickle (comparative more mickle, superlative most mickle)
- To a great extent.
- They ſay here, […] that ye deſired not the king and England to agree, becauſe it would rack the noblemen, […] I anſwered in your name that I was aſſured you had never ſpoken it. Mr. Archibald [Douglas] is the ſpeaker of it, who I aſſure your lordſhip has been a poiſon in this matter, for they lean...1586 January 12, the Master of Gray [i.e., Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray], “[Appendix to the Second Volume] To the Right Hon. My Lord Chancellor and Secretary to His Majesty, from the Master of Gray”...
- […] I livd in a house by the Tower, which has not been repaird since Robert Consull of Gloucester repayrd the castle and wall; here I livd warm, but in my house on the hyll the ayre was mickle keen, […]1778, Thomas Warton, “Section XXVI”, in The History of English Poetry, from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century, London: For, and sold by, J. Dodsley [et al.]...
- Frequently, often.
Noun
mickle (countable and uncountable, plural mickles)
- A great amount.
- Many a little makes a mickle.
- Neurthelesse little or mickle, something or nothing, substaunce or shadow take all in good part, my meaning is by a fewe wordes to wynne credit to this works, not so much for mine owne Englishe Translation as for the singular commendation of them, challenged of dutie and desart.1576, Iohannes Caius [i.e., John Caius], “To the Reader”, in Abraham Fleming, transl., Of Englishe Dogges, the Diuersities, the Names, the Natures, and the Properties. […], imprinted at London: By...
- A small amount.
- While we boast of our farming, we must repeat again and again, the secret of our prosperity. It is a regular rotation of crops, making a little out of many articles, rather than attempting to make much of one; remembering the Scotch proverb, that "many a mickle makes a muckle"; […]1831 December 3, “Improvements”, in Samuel Hazard, editor, Hazard’s Register of Pennsylvania: Devoted to the Preservation of Facts and Documents, and Every Kind of Useful Information Respecting the...
- Great or important people as a class.
- Greatness, largeness, stature.
Determiner
mickle
- Much; a great quantity or amount of.
- There was mickle melody at that Childës [Jesus Christ's] birth, / All that were in heaven's bliss, they made mickle mirth.15th century, “O Jesu Parvule”, in Edith Rickert, compiler, Ancient English Christmas Carols: MCCCC to MDCC (The New Medieval Library), London: Chatto & Windus; New York, N.Y.: Duffield & Co....
- Full many wounds in his corrupted fleſh / He did engraue, and muchell blood did ſpend, / Yet might not doe him die, but aie more freſh / And fierce he ſtill appeard, the more he did them threſh.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 32, page 503
- Most; the majority of.
- [H]e that tellt me saw wi' his ain ee'n, an' heard wi' his ain ears, the mickle part o' what I'm gaun to say—an' what he didna see or hear hissell, he learned frae those wha'd kent a' frae the beginnin'1861, “Puir Grizel: A Tale o’ Scotland”, in Mrs. S. C. Hall [i.e., Anna Maria Hall], editor, The St. James’s Magazine, volume I, London: Published for the proprietor by W. Kent and Co., Paternoster...
Pronoun
mickle
Proper noun capitalized: Mickle
Mickle (plural Mickles)
- A surname.
mickle meaning in Bengali
mickle in Bengali
- অনেক, প্রচুর
Examples of mickle in a sentence
- Archibald [Douglas] is the ſpeaker of it, who I aſſure your lordſhip has been a poiſon in this matter, for they lean very mickle to his opinion.1586 January 12, the Master of Gray [i.e., Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray], “[Appendix to the Second Volume] To the Right Hon. My Lord...
- […] I am without fenzeitnes of hart and ſpreit; and of gude reſſoun, thocht [though] my meritis were mickle greiter than of the maiſt profit that ever was, […]1790, John Whitaker, chapter VI, in Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated. … In Three Volumes, 2nd enlarged and corrected edition, volume I...
- That I wad wi' a' my heart; and mickle obliged to your honour for putting me in mind o' my bounden duty.1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], chapter XIX, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co....
- In a word, I muſt know what I may gaine, little or much: for the henne layes aſwell vpon one egge as many, and many littles make a mickle, and whilſt ſomething is gotten, nothing is loſt.1620, [Miguel de Cervantes], “What Passed betwixt Don Quixote and His Squire, with Other Most Famous Accidents”, in Thomas Shelton...
Synonyms of mickle
Forms of mickle
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more mickle |
| superlative | most mickle |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more mickle |
| superlative | most mickle |
| Noun | |
| plural | mickles |
| Pronoun | |
| alternative form | meikle |
| alternative form | michel |
| alternative form | muchell |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Mickles |
Origin of mickle
From Middle English mickle, michel, mikel, mochel, muchel, mukel (“much; many; large, tall; great”), from Old English miċel, myċel (“big, large; great; much”), from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz (“great, large; many, much”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”). The word is cognate with Faroese mikil (“large, great, much”), Icelandic mikill (“large in quantity or number; much; great”), Middle High German michel (“large, much”). Doublet of much and muckle. For the adverb and noun forms, compare Middle English muchel (“extensively, greatly, much”, adverb) and Middle English muchel (“large amount”, noun). The noun sense “a small amount” was due to the proverb many a little makes a mickle being incorrectly rendered as many a mickle makes a muckle, leading to mickle being thought to mean “a small quantity” and muckle to mean “a large quantity”, even though muckle is a variant of mickle and both mean “a large quantity”.
Words formed from mickle
- mickle-mouth
- mickle-mouthed
- mickleness
- Mickle Trafford
- overmickle
- so mickle
- somickle
- many a mickle makes a muckle
Phrases with mickle
Words that rhyme with mickle
Questions about mickle
- What does mickle mean?
- Mickle means (Very) great or large.
- What is mickle in Bengali?
- Mickle in Bengali is অনেক, প্রচুর. See Mickle meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use mickle in a sentence?
- Archibald [Douglas] is the ſpeaker of it, who I aſſure your lordſhip has been a poiſon in this matter, for they lean very mickle to his opinion.
- What part of speech is mickle?
- Mickle can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a determiner.
- How do you pronounce mickle?
- Mickle is pronounced /ˈmɪk(ə)l/ (UK).
Words near mickle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mickle (page history and authors); Mickle (page history and authors); mickle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mickle.wav.
Cite this entry: “mickle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mickle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.