a small quantity: a little of something, a few in number, or a short while.
At heart this is the word for smallness of amount. The same form covers a little water in a jar, a handful of people, and a short stretch of time, because all three are just smallness measured in different ways: how much, how many, how long. It is the natural opposite of the words for much, many, and great, and the Bible often sets it directly against them in the same breath.
From that one idea the word fans out by context. Joined to a thing it means a little of it; counting people or days it means few; pointing ahead in time it means soon or a little while; and pressed to an extreme it means almost, as if only a little were left before something happened. None of these is a separate word. Each is the single notion of a small amount, bent to fit what is being measured.
It also does quiet theological work. Israel is loved not because it was large but small (Deuteronomy 7:7); the prophets shrink the gap between now and God's acting down to a little while; and a speaker can protest that what looks like too small a thing to others is no small thing at all. The word's smallness is often the whole point of the sentence.