dwarf

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   check the growth of

   the lack of sunlight dwarfed these pines

2. 2
   verb

   make appear small by comparison

   This year's debt dwarfs that of last year

3. 3
   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.

   [T]he elf king and his queen made a royal progress every noon with a splendid retinue of dwarves and sprites, […]

4. 4
   noun

   An animal, plant or other thing much smaller than the usual of its sort.

   dwarf tree

5. 5
   noun

   A dwarf star.

   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.

6. 6
   adj

   Miniature.

   The specimen is a very dwarf form of the plant.

7. 7
   verb

   To make appear (much) smaller, puny, tiny; to be much larger than.

   The newly-built skyscraper dwarfs all older buildings in the downtown skyline.

8. 8
   verb

   To make appear insignificant.

   Bach dwarfs all other composers.

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 D…