Di‐min″u‐tive, n. 1. Something of very small size or value; an insignificant thing.
Such water flies, diminutives of nature. Shak.
2. (Gram.) A derivative from a noun, denoting a small or a young object of the same kind with that denoted by the primitive; as, gosling, eaglet, lambkin.
Babyisms and dear diminutives. Tennyson.
☞ The word sometimes denotes a derivative verb which expresses a diminutive or petty form of the action, as scribble.