little brother
269
1.0
- noun
- /ˈlɪtəl ˈbrʌðər/
:
hermano menor
- She often helps her little brother with his homework after school.
And he had a guitar, but his little brother had a bass.
- And he had a guitar, but his little brother had a bass.
- Hi, I'm Matthew, Jason's little brother from Stark, Kansas.
- The second time we're following Oak, who is the little brother in the Cruel Prince series.
- This is the screen that your little brother plays on.
- I always wanted a sister, but I love my little brother very much.
- He goes, hey, little brother, do you think he's wearing his hairpiece?
- I, I think a lot of parents, like my little brother Taylor doesn't really know how to cook.
- You may have seen on Twitter Gigi Hadid roasted my little brother Jake Paul.
- No, it's Justin Bieber, Justin Bieber's little brother.
- You know, FBG Duck, who we talk about his little brother, FBG Cash.
- Like if you're my little brother, who are the parents?
- So all of it's like Sierra Monica's little brother's girlfriend.
Examples
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I always wanted a sister, but I love my little brother very much.
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I have to get out of taking my little brother trick-or-treating.
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But my little brother is very sick.
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This is the screen that your little brother plays on.
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Give your little brother a break.
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Look at my little brother!
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- This is my little brother Chris.
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And I'm not going to let my little brother go down again.
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This is my little brother Skinny.
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My little brother joins the Navy.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a brother who is younger' is directly and compositionally derived from 'little' (young/smaller) + 'brother' (male sibling) in a standard adjective + noun pattern. This is a common, non-idiomatic construction cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Little brother comes from family talk where little means smaller or younger, so little brother is the brother who is 'younger than you'.