lilliputian

• Lilliputian

From the name of a fictional island called Lilliput in the novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌlɪlɪˈpjuʃən/

• Audio (US)

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lilliputian (plural lilliputians)

1. A very small person or being.
   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 158:

     I reflected what a Mortification it muſt prove to me to appear as inconſiderable in this Nation as one ſingle Lilliputian would be among us.

2. (genetics) A fruit fly gene that, when mutated, makes cells abnormally small. See AFF2.

• lilliputianism
• lilliputianize
• Lilliputianly
• Lilliputian vision

• lilliput

• tiddler
• munchkin

lilliputian (comparative more lilliputian, superlative most lilliputian)

1. Very small, diminutive
   • 1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, A Thunder Storm, while Travelling, page 129:

     —O'er the expanse
     Of glittering waters glides the snowy sail;—
     The lilliputian boat by infants mann'd,
     Steers amid fairy islets, circles round
     The indented shore,—...

2. Trivial, petty

• See also Thesaurus:tiny

• Brobdingnagian