little-known

English

Alternative forms

• little known

Adjective

little-known (comparative less-known or lesser-known or littler-known, superlative least-known or littlest-known)

1. Not known about by many people.
   • 1927 September 15, “Vacations: Some Folks Are Away Now and Some Have Just Come Back”, in Albert Deane, editor, Pep-O-Grams, volume 3, number 11, New York, N.Y.: Paramount-Pep Club, page seven, column 1:

     The Misses Marie Deutsch and Ann Solomon are vacationing in that littlest-known part of the world—New York—and believing in the slogan of “See America First,” they started their vacation by visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art....

   • 1943, Deems Taylor, “The Twenties”, in A Pictorial History of the Movies, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, page 116, column 2:

     She turned out a script that was a masterpiece of its kind. On her advice, Rowland engaged a little-known director, Rex Ingram, and an even less-known actor, Rudolph Valentino, to star in it.

   • 1951 Februry, K. Westcott Jones, “Some Australian Railway Byways”, in Railway Magazine, page 117:

     Some little-known lines belonging to the State exist in the extreme south-west corner of Western Australia, to serve the timber country.

   • 1964, Rhoda Hoff, “1701, Travels into Muscovy by Cornelis de Bruyn”, in Russia: Adventures in Eyewitness History, New York, N.Y.: Henry Z. Walck, Inc., →LCCN, page 37:

     Using pen and sketching pencil with talent, as well as with the advertised “attention and care,” he proves himself to be a perceptive and interesting guide to a little-known region and an even less-known people.

   • 1983, Michael Barone, Grant Ujifusa, “Illinois”, in The Almanac of American Politics 1984: […], Washington, D.C.: National Journal, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 321:

     The mayoral race between a little-known congressman and an even less-known businessman threatened to polarize race relations across the country.

   • 1995, Mary McGarry Morris, Songs in Ordinary Time, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, page 70:

     “That is from a ‘Sonnet to Love.’ ” He looked up at Marie and lowered his voice. “By Omar Duvall, a little-known sonnet by a littler-known poet.”

   • 2002, James Hawkins, No Cherubs for Melanie (An Inspector Bliss Mystery), Toronto, Ont.: Dundurn Press, page 43:

     Someone will come out in a moment, he guessed, acclimatizing himself to the atmosphere, and reminiscing nostalgically about the time he and his young wife-to-be were early arrivals for a first night performance of a little-known play by an even lesser-known amateur theatrical group.

   • 2009 September, Pat Choate, “Innovation”, in Saving Capitalism: Keeping America Strong, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 116:

     In the thirty years between the end of World War II and 1975, the FTC, a somewhat little-known independent federal agency headed by even lesser-known political appointees, forced almost one hundred similar compulsory licensing decrees upon other American companies, […]

   • 2011, Ruth Hemus, “The Manifesto of Céline Arnauld”, in Elza Adamowicz, Eric Robertson, editors, Dada and Beyond, Volume 1: Dada Discourses, Amsterdam, New York, N.Y.: Rodopi, →ISBN, section “Dada Tactics”, page 122:

     She is marginal even in relation to the marginal: the little-known avant-garde writer’s even lesser-known wife.

   • 2013 October 9, “Battersea Power Station ‘at risk’”, in The Times‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 April 2021‎^[2]:

     Battersea Power Station is among a host of world monuments that have been placed on a list of threatened heritage. It is one of 67 cultural sites in 41 countries deemed to be at risk from the forces of nature and social, political and economic change.
     They range from Venice to the little-known village of Pok Fu Lam in Hong Kong, and include sites dating from prehistory to the twentieth century.

   • 2020, Gordon H. Rodda, Lizards of the World: Natural History and Taxon Accounts, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 232, column 1:

     Caparaonia itaiquara is the sole member of this genus of Brazilian gymnophthalmids. It is among the least-known of the little-known gymnophthalmids (cells filled: 12% v. 19%).

   • 2022 January 12, “Network News: More Secrets of the Underground”, in RAIL, number 948, page 19:

     London Transport Museum's Siddy Holloway and rail historian and RAIL contributor Tim Dunn will reunite to discover more hidden sites and little-known stories from the Tube.

Antonyms

• well-known