Pronunciations (4)
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/dwɔɹf/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/dwɔːf/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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dwɔɹf
Pronunciation notes
- US
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dwɔːf
Pronunciation notes
- GB
Noun
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.
- Examples
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[T]he elf king and his queen made a royal progress every noon with a splendid retinue of dwarves and sprites, […]
More examples (1)
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.
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.
Usage- Offensive
- sometimes
- Examples
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More examples (1)
The nurse exclaimed it when I finally arrived, a month late (a habit I have kept). That's how my parents found out that I was a little person, a dwarf, of short stature.
An animal, plant or other thing much smaller than the usual of its sort.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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dwarf tree
dwarf honeysuckle
A dwarf star.
- Broader terms
- Examples
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More examples (1)
But none of those brown dwarfs were speeding along on a trajectory that would carry them out of the galaxy like “runaway” hypervelocity stars observed by astronomers in the last two decades. […] The study team said it’s likely the star was a companion to a white dwarf star, which is the remaining core of a dead star that has expelled the gases that serve as its nuclear fuel.
Adjective
Miniature.
Usage- especially
- in botany
- Examples
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The specimen is a very dwarf form of the plant.
It is possible to grow the plants as dwarf as one desires.
Verb
To render (much) smaller, turn into a dwarf (version).
Usage- Transitive
- Synonyms
To make appear (much) smaller, puny, tiny; to be much larger than.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The newly-built skyscraper dwarfs all older buildings in the downtown skyline.
More examples (2)
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.
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.
To make appear insignificant.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Bach dwarfs all other composers.
To become (much) smaller.
Usage- Intransitive
- Synonyms
To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt.
- Examples
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At present the whole sex is in a manner dwarfed and shrunk - into a race of beauties that seems almost another species
Even the most common moral ideas and affections […] would be stunted and dwarfed, if cut off from a spiritual background.
Noun
a person who is markedly small
- Broader terms
a legendary creature resembling a tiny old man; lives in the depths of the earth and guards buried treasure
- Synonyms
a plant or animal that is atypically small
Verb
make appear small by comparison
- Synonyms
- Examples
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This year's debt dwarfs that of last year
check the growth of
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the lack of sunlight dwarfed these pines