dwarf
part of speech
noun (a dwarf, dwarfs or dwarves); adjective (dwarf = much smaller than usual); verb (dwarf, dwarfs, dwarfed, dwarfing)
meaning for a pupil
1) In fairy tales and fantasy, a dwarf is a small, strong, often bearded creature who lives in mountains and mines. tree →
2) As an adjective, dwarf means a much smaller kind of something: a dwarf tree, a dwarf planet. tree →
3) To dwarf something means to make it look very small by being much bigger. tree →
4) Dwarfism is a medical condition in which a person grows to a short height. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: A man with a very small, stunted body. Such a man could not serve as a priest. Interpretation: The law of blemishes lists him among those priests who could not offer the sacrifices, though tradition says they still shared in the priestly food and holiness. In the primary lessons: In stories, dwarfs appear in «Snow White» and fantasy books, digging for gold. In science lessons Pluto is a dwarf planet, and a white dwarf is a small, dying star; gardeners grow dwarf apple trees. In everyday writing, «the skyscraper dwarfed the houses» means it made them look tiny. Phrases: «dwarf planet», «white dwarf», «red dwarf», «dwarfed by».
examples
- or crook-backed, or a dwarf, or that hath his eye overspread, or is scabbed, or scurvy, or hath his stones crushed; (Torah LEV.21.20, JPS 1917) tree →
- Snow White lived with seven dwarfs. tree →
- Pluto is now called a dwarf planet. tree →
- A white dwarf is the hot core left after a star dies. tree →
- We planted a dwarf apple tree in a pot. tree →
- The giant ship dwarfed the little boats. tree →
- In the story the dwarves mined for gold. tree →
- Dwarf rabbits are very small pets. tree →
- The mountains dwarfed our tent. tree →
note
Plural: «dwarfs» (standard, science) or «dwarves» (fantasy books). Respect: for real people with dwarfism, many prefer «a person of short stature» or «a little person»; using «dwarf» as a joke is hurtful. A dwarf planet orbits the Sun but has not cleared its path of other objects.
In the corpora
- In Kenya, hornbills and dwarf mongooses team up: the birds catch insects the mongooses disturb and call out warnings of hawks.
- In some caves dwarf crocodiles have turned orange, possibly from living among bat droppings.
- The Jaragua dwarf gecko of the Caribbean is one of the smallest reptiles, small enough to curl up on a coin.
- In 2006 astronomers reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet after finding other similar objects, and some scientists still argue about it.
- Pluto was called a planet until 2006, when astronomers made it a dwarf planet, so books printed before then list nine planets.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «dwarf» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.