Definition of "diminutive"

Mrs. Washington ("Oh, la, call me Martha, Boys") is a diminutive woman with a cheerful rather than happy air, who seems to bustle even when standing still..

1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon, New York: Henry Holt and Company, page 229

Roman Sharonov rose unchallenged to head a corner wide, while diminutive winger Gokdeniz Karadeniz ghosted in with a diving header from the edge of the six-yard box that was acrobatically kept out by Gomes.

2011 October 20, Jamie Lillywhite, “Tottenham 1 - 0 Rubin Kazan”, in BBC Sport‎

They cou’d, perhaps, even embrace POVERTY contentedly, rather than submit to any thing diminutive either of their inward Freedom or national Liberty.

1711, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, 1714 edition republished by Gregg International Publishers, 1968, Volume 3, Miscellany 3, Chapter 2, p. 175

But I was frightfully fond of the universe and wanted to address it by a diminutive. I often did so; and it never seemed to mind.

1908, G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

When we come to occupative names, we are again confronted by crowds of diminutives.

1916, Ernest Weekley, Surnames, page 287