מָעַט mâʻaṭ — properly, to pare off, i.e. lessen
Translated in the KJV as suffer to decrease, diminish, (be, × borrow a, give, make) few (in number, -ness), gather least, be little, less, be minished, bring to nothing.
a primitive root; properly, to pare off, i.e. lessen; intransitively, to be (or causatively, to make) small or few (or figuratively, ineffective).
mâʻaṭ in each stem
Hiph'il
Imperfect (yiqtol) 7Participle (active) 3Sequential perfect (weqatal) 2Jussive 1
And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.
Qal (Pa'al)
Imperfect (yiqtol) 4Jussive 2Infinitive construct 1Wayyiqtol 1
And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.
Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.
Pi'el
Perfect (qatal) 1
In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,
What the stems mean
A Hebrew verb is its root letters set into a pattern. The pattern — the binyan — is the grammar's way of saying three things at once: whether the action is simple, intensive or causative, and whether its subject is active, passive or reflexive. That is why one Hebrew word can need six English ones. All seven binyanim, explained ›