dwarf
UK /dwɔːf/ · US /dwɔɹf/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun
Forms dwarfs dwarves dwarfer dwarfest dwarfing dwarfed
- noun (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.
- noun (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.
- noun An animal, plant or other thing much smaller than the usual of its sort. “dwarf tree”
- noun (astronomy) A dwarf star.
- adjective (especially in botany) Miniature. “The specimen is a very dwarf form of the plant.”
- verb (transitive) To render (much) smaller, turn into a dwarf (version).
- verb (transitive) To make appear (much) smaller, puny, tiny; to be much larger than. “The newly-built skyscraper dwarfs all older buildings in the downtown skyline.”
- verb (transitive) To make appear insignificant. “Bach dwarfs all other composers.”
- verb (intransitive) To become (much) smaller.
- verb To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt.
- proper noun (file format) A standardized debugging file format.
Synonyms
dwarfin dwarrow elf midget pygmy runt miniaturize shrink eclipse overshadow outshadow outshine outdo put to shame upstage surpass outmatch outstrip nanus gnome shadow
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English dwergh, dwerw, dwerf, from Old English dweorg, from Proto-West Germanic *dwerg, from Proto-Germanic *dwergaz.
Cognate with Scots droich, dwerch (“dwarf, midget”); Old High German twerc (German, Luxembourgish Zwerg (“dwarf”)); Old Norse dvergr (Danish dværg (“dwarf, midget”), Faroese dvørgur (“dwarf”), Icelandic dvergur (“dwarf”), Norwegian Bokmål dverg (“dwarf”), Norwegian Nynorsk dverg, verg (“dwarf”), Swedish dvärg (“dwarf”)); Old Frisian dwirg (Saterland Frisian Dwärch (“dwarf”), West Frisian dwerch (“dwarf”)); Middle Low German dwerch, dwarch, twerg (German Low German Dwarg (“dwarf”)); Middle Dutch dwerch, dworch (Dutch dwerg (“dwarf”)).
The Modern English noun has undergone complex phonetic changes. The form dwarf is the regular continuation of Old English dweorg, but the plural dweorgas would have given rise to dwarrows and the oblique stem dweorge- would have led to dwery. These forms are sometimes found as the nominative singular in Middle English texts and in English dialects. A parallel case is that of Old English burg giving burgh, borough, burrow, bury.
A play on the related ELF object file format. The backronym “Debugging With Arbitrary Record Formats” has been suggested.
Webster’s 1913
- noun An animal or plant which is much below the ordinary size of its species or kind; especially, a diminutive human being.
- verb To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt. Addison.
- verb To become small; to diminish in size.
Etymology [OE. dwergh, dwerf, dwarf, AS. dweorg, dweorh; akin to D. dwerg, MHG. twerc, G. zwerg, Icel. dvergr, Sw. & Dan. dverg; of unknown origin.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “dwarf”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details