без мала

• БЕЗ МАЛОГО coll; БЕЗ МАЛА substand

[PrepP; these forms only; usu. used with a quantit NP as nonagreeing modif]

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⇒ a little less than (the amount, number etc named):

- almost;

- just about;

- nearly;

- slightly less than;

- just under;

- a little short of;

- a bit less than;

- practically.

     ♦ ...Он объяснил себе свои предчувствия так, что слишком давно ничего не писал "своего", уже без малого год, даже больше года... (Битов 2). ...He explained his premonitions by telling himself that it was too long since he had written anything of his own, almost a year already, even more than a year (2a).

     ♦ "В чем же вы провинились?" - "Да не мы... Соседи. Нам заодно досталось..." - "А те что?" - "Да без малого все семь смертных грехов" (Пастернак 1). "What have you done?" "We didn't do anything, it was our neighbors; we got it too for good measure..." "And what crime had they committed?" "Just about all the seven deadly sins..." (1a).

     ♦ ...Вот уже без малого двадцать лет [дочь] ходит за ним, кормит, обстирывает... (Максимов 3). ...For nearly twenty years now [his daughter] had looked after him, fed him, washed his clothes... (3a).

     ♦ Без малого три месяца провалялся Андрей Гуськов в новосибирском госпитале (Распутин 2). Andrei [Guskov] languished in the hospital in Novosibirsk for just under three . months (2a).

     ♦ Он именно, чуть не по пальцам, высчитал, что Митя, в первый приезд свой в Мокрое, за месяц почти пред катастрофой, не мог истратить менее трёх тысяч или "разве без самого только малого" (Достоевский 2). He calculated precisely, almost on his fingers, that during his first visit to Mokroye about a month before the catastrophe, Mitya could not have spent less than three thousand, or "maybe just a tiny bit less" (2a).

     ♦ [Бабакина:] Видано ли дело: первый заём стоит уж двести семьдесят, а второй без малого двести пятьдесят... (Чехов 4). [В.:] It's fantastic - they're up to two hundred and seventy roubles for the first draw and they're practically at two-fifty for the second (4b)