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Small; diminished; diminutive. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

Diminutively. [Obs.]

of dignity; a lowering in estimation; degradation; abasement. The world's opinion or diminution of me. Eikon Basilike. Nor thinks it diminution to be ranked In military honor next. Philips.

Indicating diminution; diminutive. "Diminutival forms" [of words]. Earle. -- n.

Expressing diminution; as, a diminutive word.

In a diminutive manner.

The quality of being diminutive; smallness; littleness; minuteness.

One who often takes his dinner away from home, or in company. A brilliant diner-out, though but a curate. Byron.

To deprive of credit or authority; to discredit. [R.] W. Wotton.

To divest of a clout. [R.]

Serving to disperse morbid matter; discussive; as, a discutient application. -- n.

A dishcloth. [Obsolescent]

A friction clutch in which the gripping surfaces are disks or more or less resemble disks.

Capable of being disputed; liable to be called in question, controverted, or contested; or doubtful certainty or propriety; controvertible; as, disputable opinions, propositions, points, or questions. Actions, every one of which is very disputable. Jer. Taylor.

State of being disputable.

Proneness to dispute. [Obs.] Bp. Ward.

Disputing; engaged in controversy. Milton.

The act of disputing; a reasoning or argumentation in opposition to something, or on opposite sides; controversy in words; verbal contest respecting the truth of some fact, opinion, proposition, or argument.

Inclined to dispute; apt to civil or controvert; characterized by dispute; as, a disputatious person or temper. The Christian doctrine of a future life was no recommendation of the new religion to the wits and philosophers of that disputations period. Buckminster. -- Dis`pu*ta"tious*ly, adv. -- Dis`pu*ta"tious*ness, n…

Disposed to dispute; inclined to cavil or to reason in opposition; as, a disputative temper. I. Watts.