English · Slang Historical

smalls

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

A University term for the first general examination of the student. It is used at Cambridge, but properly belongs to Oxford. The Cambridge term is "little go."

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Kỳ thi tổng quát đầu tiên của sinh viên tại trường đại học

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)

Where it’s used: Origin British & Irish English

Sources & notes

Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “smalls” mean?

A University term for the first general examination of the student. It is used at Cambridge, but properly belongs to Oxford. The Cambridge term is "little go."

Is “smalls” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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