sb. and a. Also Liliputian. [f. LILLIPUT + -IAN.]
A. sb. An inhabitant of LILLIPUT; hence, a person of diminutive size, character or mind.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, I. iii. etc.
1727. Fielding, Love Sev. Masques, III. x. Oh, gemini! would I had been born a Lilliputian!
1808. Scott, Dryden’s Wks. (1883), IV. 5. The other personages of the drama sink into Lilliputians beside the gigantic Almanzor.
1884. Fortn. Rev., March, 326. The antics of these official Lilliputians.
B. adj. Of or pertaining to Lilliput or its inhabitants; hence, of diminutive size; petty.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, I. v. The Lilliputian tongue.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, II. v. 319. Good substantial Leagues dwindling into even Liliputian Furlongs.
a. 1764. Lloyd, New-River Head, Poet. Wks. 1774, II. 64. The Lilliputian Statesmen rise To malice of gigantic size.
1808. Scott, in Lockhart, Life (1869), III. xviii. 150. Petty conquests or Liliputian expeditions.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 33/1. The stairs are of lilliputian measurement, fitted to their tiny strides.
1878. Emerson, Misc. Papers, Sov. Ethics, Wks. (Bohn), III. 383. In America … our institutions, our politics … have fostered a self-reliance which is small, liliputian, full of fuss and bustle.
1884. Garden. Illustr., 8 Nov., 427/1. The charming little Erysimum pumilum … is often called the Lilliputian Wallflower.
Hence Lilliputianize v., to dwarf. Lilliputianized ppl. a., Liliputianizing vbl. sb.
1885. Clark Russell, Strange Voy., I. xix. 282. The satirical Lilliputianizing of the stately Margaret Edwards went against the grain. Ibid. (1889) Marooned, III. viii. 277. The Liliputianized figures of her crew making a very toy of the little fabric. Ibid. (1890), Ocean Trag., I. xi. 230. Liliputianised as he was [by distance].
