Definition of "dwarf"

dwarf

/dwɔɹf/

noun
plural dwarfs or dwarves
1. (mythology) Any member of a race of beings from (especially Scandinavian and other Germanic) folklore, usually depicted as having some sort of supernatural powers and being skilled in crafting and metalworking, often as short with long beards, and sometimes as clashing with elves.
  Quotations
  Nidavellir, which is sometimes called Svartalfheim, where the dwarfs (who are also known as dark elves) live beneath the mountains and build their remarkable creations.
  2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 20
2. (now sometimes offensive) A person of short stature, often one whose limbs are disproportionately small in relation to the body as compared with typical adults, usually as the result of a genetic condition.
3. An animal, plant or other thing much smaller than the usual of its sort.
4. (astronomy) A dwarf star.
adjective
comparative dwarfer, superlative dwarfest
1. (especially in botany) Miniature.
verb
third-person singular simple present dwarfs, present participle dwarfing, simple past and past participle dwarfed
1. (transitive) To render (much) smaller, turn into a dwarf (version).
2. (transitive) To make appear (much) smaller, puny, tiny.
  Quotations
  The train bursts from Rusher Cutting Tunnel with explosive violence, the engine's exhaust soaring high into the air, but dwarfed by the mighty limestone cliffs on either side.
  1960 April, J. P. Wilson, E. N. C. Haywood, “The route through the Peak - Derby to Manchester: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 225
  In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.
  2013 May-June, Kevin Heng, “Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily?”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 184
3. (transitive) To make appear insignificant.
4. (intransitive) To become (much) smaller.
5. To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt.
  Quotations
  At present the whole sex is in a manner dwarfed and shrunk - into a race of beauties that seems almost another species
  1710 July 3 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “THURSDAY, June 22, 1710”, in The Spectator, number 98; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853
  Even the most common moral ideas and affections […] would be stunted and dwarfed, if cut off from a spiritual background.
  1881, John Campbell Shairp, Aspects of Poetry

Definition of "dwarf"

dwarf

noun

Quotations

adjective

verb

Quotations

Quotations