Small; little; narrow; contracted; as a diminutive race of men or other animals; a diminutive thought.

In grammar, a word formed from another word, usually an appellative or generic term, to express a little thing of the kind; as, in Latin, lapillus, a little stone, from lapis; cellula, a little cell, from cella, a cell; in French, maisonnette, a little house, from maison, a house; in English, manikin, a little man, from man.