Word Finder - dwarf

definition

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.

definition

A person of short stature, often one whose limbs are disproportionately small in relation to the body as compared with normal adults, usually as the result of a genetic condition.

synonyms

• midget
• pygmy (imprecise)

definition

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

example

dwarf honeysuckle

synonyms

• runt

definition

A star of relatively small size.

definition

To render (much) smaller, turn into a dwarf (version).

synonyms

• miniaturize
• shrink

definition

To make appear (much) smaller, puny, tiny.

example

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

definition

To make appear insignificant.

example

Bach dwarfs all other composers.

synonyms

• eclipse
• outdo
• outmatch
• outshadow
• outshine
• outstrip
• overshadow
• put to shame
• surpass
• upstage

definition

To become (much) smaller.

synonyms

• shrink

definition

To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt.

definition

Miniature.

example

It is possible to grow the plants as dwarf as one desires.

The pugdog is a dwarf race, probably of mastiff origin, and kept solely as a pet.

Pretty dwarf iridaceous plants, thriving in peaty soil.

Coprosma - Dwarf evergreen shrubs from New Zealand, best seen in shore and southern gardens, and most at home on a bold rock garden.

Dahlia - Distinct groups of Dahlias present a fine effect, if the colors are well chosen, and many good effects are spoilt by mixing up tall and dwarf bushy kinds indiscriminately.

Some attain great dimensions, while others are dwarf bushes with woody root-stocks.

In cold soils a good way is to sow in boxes and plant out when small near dwarf plants only.

The dwarf Ageratums are among the best, but all are over-valued, though they are among the most lasting of summer bedding plants.

Meconopsis Quintuplinervia - A perennial kind from Manchuria, of dwarf growth as a rosette of long-stemmed uncut leaves, covered with reddish hairs and traversed by five prominent veins.

In the rock garden among dwarf plants Colchicums thrive, and make a pretty show in autumn, when rock gardens are often flowerless.

The relatively small size of the ear is one of the most distinctive characteristics of the dwarf race.

In this connexion it is of interest to note that, both in the Mediterranean islands and in West Africa, dwarf elephants of the African type are accompanied by pigmy species of hippopotamus, although we have not yet evidence to show that in Africa the two animals occupy actually the same area.

Its flat-roofed Moorish houses are enclosed by gardens of cactus, dwarf palm, orange and other subtropical plants, interspersed with masses of rock.

Round the wall is a deep double ditch, a dwarf wall running along its centre.

Young plants a few inches high are usually attacked; the leaves, beginning with the lower ones, turn yellow, and afterwards become brown and drop. The plants remain very dwarf and generally unhealthy, or die.

In the early periods of their history the Greeks depended too much on their nets to capture game, and it was not until later times that they pursued their prey with dogs, and then not with greyhounds, which run by sight, but with beagles, the dwarf hound which is still very popular.

For days consecutively the horse of the explorer can get no other food than the dwarf birch.

Instances of his selected varieties are the tall variety which he hybridized with a dwarf variety, a yellow-seeded variety which he hybridized with a green-seeded variety, and again a smooth-seeded variety which he hybridized with a wrinkle-seeded variety.

The only other species of palm found wild in Tunisia is the Chamaerops humilis, or dwarf.

Then follow the low, dense, prone, pillow-like dwarf bushes, thorny and grey, common to the Oriental highlands - A stragalus and the peculiar Acantholimon.

They are dwarf, ribbed, globose or cylindrical plants; and the flowers, which are produced from the side instead of the apex of the stem, are large, and in some cases very beautiful, being remarkable for the length of the tube, which is more or less covered with bristly hairs.

Grasses, mosses and Arctic flowering plants are abundant, but there are no trees excepting occasional dwarf willows.

The prickly ash, Virginian creeper and staff-tree find here their northern limit; and the mountain maple, Canada blueberry, dwarf birch and ground hemlock their southern limit.

But the connexion of the god with Puoni may have grown out of the fact that dwarf dancers were especially brought to Egypt from Ethiopia and Puoni.

The agave and prickly pear, the myrtle, the olive and the dwarf palm grow luxuriantly; and the fields are covered with narcissus, iris and other flowers of every hue.

Large quantities of crin vegetal (vegetable horse-hair) an excellent fibre, are made from the leaves of the dwarf palm.

It might seem in lion that Bohemund was destined to found a great principality in Antioch, which would dwarf Jerusalem; he had a fine territory, a good strategical position and a strong army.

Among trees, stunted pines, dwarf oaks, poplars, willows and the cypress are fairly plentiful.

South of the Arctic circle they are, under ordinary circumstances, confined to the plateaus covered with dwarf birch and juniper above the conifer-region, though in Tromso amt and in Finmarken they occur in all suitable localities down to the level of the sea.

If a living edging is adopted, by far the best is afforded by the dwarf box planted closely in line.

Dwarf close-growing evergreen cruciferous plants, adapted for rockwork and the front part of the flower border, and of the easiest culture.

Beautiful dwarf spring-blooming rock plants, forming carpety tufts of flowers of simple cruciferous form.

Charming dwarf hardy bulbous plants of the liliaceous order, blooming in the early spring in company with Scilla sibirica, and of equally easy cultivation.

Charming tuberous-rooted plants of dwarf habit, suitable for sheltered rockeries, and growing in light gritty soil.

Handsome dwarf tufted plants.

Dwarf subshrubby plants well suited for rockwork, and called Sun-Roses from their blossoms resembling small wild roses and their thriving best in sunny spots.

The Candytuft, of which several dwarf spreading subshrubby species are amongst the best of rock plants, clothing the surface with tufts of green shoots, and flowering in masses during May and June.

The variety Mariesi (or pumilum) is dwarf, with larger, deeper-coloured flowers.

Beautiful dwarf bulbous plants, thriving in well-worked sandy loam, or sandy peat.

Layer the tops of chrysanthemums, to obtain dwarf flowering plants.

Sow early peas and Early Dwarf Prolific beans in the second week, for an early crop; also in frames for transplanting.

The latter are now largely grown for market purposes, being more easily supported when carrying heavy crops, fruiting earlier, and the fruit being gathered more easily from the dwarf bush than from standard trees.

In the northeastern districts the primeval forest gives place to park-like country, consisting of plains covered with high coarse grass, and dotted with occasional baobabs, as well as with wild plum, shea-butter, dwarf date, fan palms, and other small trees.

He is represented either as a closely inshrouded figure whose protruding hands grasp a composite sceptre, the whole standing on a pedestal within a shrine; or else as a misshapen dwarf.

In certain species of Oedogonium minute male plantlets, known as dwarf males, become attached to the female plant in the neighbourhood of the oogonia, thus facilitating fertilization.

On the right is the palace of Charles V., a cold-looking but majestic Renaissance building, out of harmony with its surroundings, which it tends somewhat to dwarf by its superior size.

One, called turanjbin, appears to exude, in small round tears, from the camelthorn, and also from the dwarf tamarisk; the other, sir-kasht, in large grains and irregular masses or cakes with bits of twig imbedded, is obtained from a tree which the natives call si g h chob (black wood), thought by Bellew to be a Fraxinus or Ornus.

The variation is from dwarf mountain pine to giant cactus and dates.

Above the firs come the tamarack, constituting the bulk of the lower Alpine forest; the hardy long-lived mountain pine; the red cedar or juniper, growing even on the baldest rocks; the beautiful hemlock spruce; the still higher white pine, nut pine, needle pine; and finally, at io,000 to 12,000 ft., the dwarf pine, which grows in a tangle on the earth over which one walks, and may not show for a century's growth more than a foot of height or an inch of girth.

We know very little of the ancient methods of cultivating the vine, but the Romans-no doubt owing to the luxuriant ease with which the vine grows in Italy-appear to have trained it on trees, trellis work, palisades, &c. The dwarf form of cultivation now common in northern Europe does not appear to have obtained to any extent.

This dwarf system of culture gives the Medoc vineyards at a distance the appearance of a sea of small bushes, thereby producing an effect entirely different from, for instance, that seen on the Rhine with its high basket-shaped plants.