Lilliputian

[ lil-i-pyoo-shuhn ]

adjective
  1. extremely small; tiny; diminutive.

  2. petty; trivial: Our worries are Lilliputian when compared with those of people whose nations are at war.

noun
  1. an inhabitant of Lilliput.

  2. a very small person.

  1. a person who is narrow or petty in outlook.

Origin of Lilliputian

1
First recorded in 1726; Lilliput + -ian

Words Nearby Lilliputian

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Lilliputian in a sentence

  • Has anyone noticed how diminished, how very Lilliputian, America has become?

    Who Shrunk America? | Tunku Varadarajan | September 5, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • How could he pick the Lilliputian city whose favorite place of worship is the Rocky statue at the foot of an art museum?

  • It was all cherry satin and white lace, the furniture Lilliputian, to match the proportions of the room and the lady.

    Ancestors | Gertrude Atherton
  • You will read Boccaccio, whose tales are intaglios carved with exquisitely licentious and Lilliputian scenes.

    Sinister Street, vol. 1 | Compton Mackenzie
  • Little Katy laughed outright, as the idea of this Lilliputian combatant presented itself.

    Ruth Hall | Fanny Fern
  • Her humble origin certainly did not betray itself in her hands and feet, which were exquisite in shape and Lilliputian in size.

    The Elusive Pimpernel | Baroness Emmuska Orczy
  • The toilet of this Lilliputian in feathers, performed on her chosen twig as it often was, interested me greatly.

    A Bird-Lover in the West | Olive Thorne Miller

British Dictionary definitions for Lilliputian

Lilliputian

/ (ˌlɪlɪˈpjuːʃɪən) /


noun
  1. a tiny person or being

adjective
  1. tiny; very small

  2. petty or trivial

Origin of Lilliputian

1
C18: from Lilliput, an imaginary country of tiny inhabitants in Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012