| / English Dictionary |
DIMINUTIVE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("diminutive" is a kind of...):
word (a unit of language that native speakers can identify)
Derivation:
diminutive (very small)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Very small
Example:
the flyspeck nation of Bahrain moved toward democracy
Synonyms:
bantam; diminutive; flyspeck; lilliputian; midget; petite; tiny
Classified under:
Similar:
little; small (limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent)
Derivation:
diminutive (a word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness)
diminutiveness (the property of being very small in size)
Context examples:
I remember when I was at Lilliput, the complexion of those diminutive people appeared to me the fairest in the world; and talking upon this subject with a person of learning there, who was an intimate friend of mine, he said that my face appeared much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the ground, than it did upon a nearer view, when I took him up in my hand, and brought him close, which he confessed was at first a very shocking sight.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
This writer went through all the usual topics of European moralists, showing how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an animal was man in his own nature; how unable to defend himself from inclemencies of the air, or the fury of wild beasts: how much he was excelled by one creature in strength, by another in speed, by a third in foresight, by a fourth in industry.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Then turning to his first minister, who waited behind him with a white staff, near as tall as the mainmast of the Royal Sovereign, he observed how contemptible a thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects as I: and yet, says he, I dare engage these creatures have their titles and distinctions of honour; they contrive little nests and burrows, that they call houses and cities; they make a figure in dress and equipage; they love, they fight, they dispute, they cheat, they betray!
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
To avoid which censure I fear I have run too much into the other extreme; and that if this treatise should happen to be translated into the language of Brobdingnag (which is the general name of that kingdom,) and transmitted thither, the king and his people would have reason to complain that I had done them an injury, by a false and diminutive representation.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
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