diminutive

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Extremely small in size; tiny. See Synonyms at small.
2. adj. Grammar Of or being a suffix that indicates smallness or, by semantic extension, qualities such as youth, familiarity, affection, or contempt, as -let in booklet, -kin in lambkin, or -et in nymphet.
3. n. Grammar A diminutive suffix, word, or name.
4. n. A very small person or thing.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Small; little; narrow; contracted: as, a race of diminutive men; a diminutive house.
2. Having the power of diminishing or lessening; tending to diminish, decrease, or abridge.
3. In grammar, expressing something small or little: as, a diminutive word; the diminutive suffixes ‘-kin.’ ‘-let,’ ‘-ling,’ etc. See II., 3.
4. n. I. Anything very small as to size, importance, value, etc.: as, a dainty diminutive
5. n. In old medicine, something that dimishes or abates.
6. n. 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, a stone; 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; rivulet, which a double diminutive, being from Latin rivulus, a diminutive of rivus, a river, with the English diminutive of rivus, a river, with the English diminutive termination -et. Many terminations originally diminutive, or words having such terminations, have lost diminutive force. The principal suffixes in English recognized as diminutive are -et, -kin, -let, -ling, -ock, -in, and -y or -ie. See also -el, -elle, -ule, -cute, etc.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Very small.
2. adj. Serving to diminish.
3. adj. grammar Of or pertaining to, or creating a word form expressing smallness, youth, unimportance, or endearment.
4. n. grammar A word form expressing smallness, youth, unimportance, or endearment.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Below the average size; very small; little.
2. adj. Expressing diminution.
3. adj. rare Tending to diminish.
4. n. Something of very small size or value; an insignificant thing.
5. n. (Gram.) A derivative from a noun, denoting a small or a young object of the same kind with that denoted by the primitive.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness
2. adj. very small