From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlesserless‧er /ˈlesə $ -ər/ ●●○ adjective [only before noun] 1 formalLESS not as large, as important, or as much as something else OPP greater They originally asked for $5 million, but finally settled for a lesser sum.to a lesser extent/degree This was true in Madrid and, to a lesser extent, Valencia and Seville. → lesser mortals at mortal2, → to a greater or lesser extent at extent(1)2 → the lesser of two evils3 HB technical used in the names of some types of animal, bird, or plant that are slightly smaller than the main type —lesser adverb the lesser-known artists of the period one of Glasgow’s lesser-used venues
Examples from the Corpus
lesser• The jury found him innocent of murder, but could not decide on the lesser charges.• It had lain on the matting by his feet looking somehow obscenely wealthy and golden among the lesser coins.• Rather, they affect production through their influence on labour quality and, to a lesser extent, labour quantity.• To impress and drive away lesser males, the harem bull develops a darker coat and a swollen neck.• His fitness and determination ensured that he survived a journey on which a lesser man could have been lost without trace.• But real life, of course, teaches lesser men to keep their heads down and their mouths shut.• Hundreds of lesser sites were destroyed.• The lesser verdict may also assist the judge in sentencing, and help the public to understand the sentence imposed.to a lesser extent/degree• All of these suffer from the transfer problem already mentioned, though to a lesser extent.• I feel the same way about ballet and, to a lesser extent, basketball.• Some techniques were employed to a lesser extent but still provide invaluable comparative results.• Fear and, to a lesser extent, greed are what make money move.• In water, and to a lesser extent in forests, the first of these factors is light.• The arts, too, have been transformed by modern technology, though to a lesser extent than industry.• The cases of Corvan, and to a lesser extent that of early Elvis Presley, are relatively straight forward to analyse.• What is meant by science in this case is of course the physical sciences and to a lesser degree the biological sciences. 