dwarfingn.
/ˈdwɔːfɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈd(w)ɔrfɪŋ/ 1. The action or fact of remaining small or diminishing in size, extent, vigour, etc.; the action or process of restricting the growth or development of something, esp. a plant. Also figurative.
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1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §536 Dwarfing requireth a slow Putting forth, and lesse Vigour of Mounting.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. at Dwarfing [In Bononia] They prescribe also a method of dwarfing of men by annointig their back-bones in their infancy with the grease of moles, bats and dormice. But this seems merely imaginary.
1776 Ld. Kames Gentleman Farmer i. vii. 137 The dwarfing of plants however is confined within a certain limit; otherwise they would in time disappear altogether.
1830 J. Baxter Libr. Agric. & Hort. Knowl. 72 The process of dwarfing is another illustration of the fact that leaf-buds can be converted into flower-buds.
1845 Ohio Observer 14 May 74/5 He who has no higher business on hand than to roll about his tub, like Diogenes, may free himself..from care and anxiety. But the immunity he will purchase at a dear price—the dwarfing of his intellect and his heart.
1902 Jrnl. Educ. Feb. 155/1 Of his lack of responsibility to the State and to his fellow-men, of his intellectual stagnation and his moral dwarfing, I have said enough.
1986 J. A. Samson Trop. Fruits (ed. 2) v. 101 The last named disease causes serious dwarfing, but even with virus-free buds the trees remain small.
2001 T. Flannery Eternal Frontier (e-book ed.) Hunting by or competition from humans..precipitated much of the dwarfing experienced by large mammals over the last 12,000 years.
2. The effect or fact of being made to appear or seem small or insignificant by comparison with something larger or more important, or through being viewed from a distance.
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1854 N. Wales Chron. 17 June (Crystal Palace Suppl.) 1/6 In spite of the dry fountains, the dwarfing of the plants by the immense height of the roof..there existed but one prevalent feeling of admiration and wonder that so much could have been accomplished in so short a time.
1907 J. Hill Great Eng. Poets 291 The dwarfing of landed interests beside the huge fortunes made by industrial and high financial processes.
1972 Internat. Affairs 48 268 One of the salient themes of the book is the dwarfing of Europe by surrounding super-powers.
2018 P. N. Lindfield & D. Townshend in C. Dakers Fonthill Recovered (e-book, accessed 27 Sept. 2021) xvi. 295 The sheer grandeur, scale, and the dwarfing of human inhabitants by imposing architectural forms..seem to derive from Beckford's fascination with Giovanni Battista Piranesi's illustrations.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2022).
dwarfingadj.
/ˈdwɔːfɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈd(w)ɔrfɪŋ/ 1.
a. That causes something to remain small or to diminish in size, extent, vigour, etc.; that restricts the growth or development of something, esp. a plant. Also figurative.
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1807 ‘A. McDonald’ Compl. Dict. Pract. Gardening at Stocks The quince stock is estimable principally for its dwarfing property.
1811 S. T. Coleridge in Courier 3 Sept. Their grievances were at that time many and real, such as actually affected growth of individual prosperity, and extended a dwarfing influence alike over the country-house, the manufactory, and the peasant's hovel.
1929 Sat. Evening Post 13 May 32/3 We hear on every hand loud laments over the deadening effect of machine methods of production upon intellect, of the dwarfing influence of machinery upon brain power.
1944 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 31 504/1 Studies of the causes of hybrid vigor should not be based on inbreds which possess one or more homozygous dwarfing genes.
2015 J. Wong Grow for Flavour 204/1 Whether you're growing them [sc. almonds] indoors or out, make sure you opt for a plant drafted onto a dwarfing rootstock to keep the size of your trees in check.
b. That causes something or someone to appear or seem small or insignificant.
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1856 Builder 18 Oct. 568/3 Place the structure on a high base, to prevent, if possible, the dwarfing effect of its magnificent neighbour the Hall.
1901 Independent (N.Y.) 7 Mar. 573/1 To preserve..Copley Square..and..historic Beacon Street..from the encroachments of hideous and dwarfing skyscrapers.
1974 W. Davies in D. Thomas Sel. Poems 7 The 1940s were Thomas's decade. In the 1930s there had been felt..the dwarfing presence of the century's two greatest poets, Yeats and Eliot.
2007 T. Peagram Blue Ridge Parkway by Foot xxvi. 222 From some vantage points, its [sc. a mountain's] dwarfing immensity created the illusion that I could throw a stone across one final, deep valley and strike it.
2. That diminishes in size; becoming smaller. rare.
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1894 Trans. Linn. Soc.: Bot. 4 i. 75 Along our ridge the gradually dwarfing shrubs ran up yet another 1000 feet.
1999 R. Singer Encycl. Paleontol. I. 541/1 Allometry can also be studied within a temporal series, for example, in the fossil representatives of a rapidly dwarfing lineage.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2022).
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n.1626
adj.1807