English

Adjective

small-minded ‎(comparative smaller-minded or more small-minded, superlative smallest-minded or most small-minded)

1. Selfish, petty; constrained in thought, limited in scope of consideration, not mindful of the big picture.
   • 1859, Washington Irving, Life of George Washington,Vol. 1, ch. 22:

     Dinwiddie was evidently actuated by the petty pique of a narrow and illiberal mind, impatient of contradiction, even when in error. . . . It may excite a grave smile at the present day to find Washington charged by this very small-minded man with looseness in his way of writing to him.

   • 1907, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Utopia of Usurers and other Essays, ch. 26: The Tyranny of Bad Journalism:

     [C]onsider the case of the solemn articles in praise of the men who own newspapers—men of the type of Cadbury or Harmsworth, men of the type of the small club of millionaires. . . . These few small-minded men publish papers to praise themselves.

   • 2007 Feb. 1, Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates, "Is Obama Black Enough?," Time (retrieved 22 April 2014):

     That someone given the escape valve of biraciality would choose to be black, would see some beauty in his darker self and still care more about health care and public education than reparations and Confederate flags is just too much for many small-minded racists, both black and white, to comprehend.

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