Search the Dictionary

Being on a small; much reduced from the reality; as, a miniature copy.

A species of white, unglazed porcelain, in which vases, figures, and groups are formed in miniature. Meat biscuit, an alimentary preparation consisting of matters extracted from meat by boiling, or of meat ground fine and combined with flour, so as to form biscuits.

he axils of the upright stem, numerous small green heads, or "sprouts," each a cabbage in miniature, of one or two inches in diameter; the thousand-headed cabbage. -- Brussels wire ground, a ground for lace, made of silk, with meshes partly straight and partly arched.

A beautiful pigment, or a lake, of this color, prepared from cochineal, and used in miniature painting.

A mode of execution in engraving, drawing, and miniature painting, in which shading is produced by lines crossing each other at angles more or less acute; -- called also crosshatching.

der 1st Back. -- Hop clover (Bot.), a species of yellow clover having heads like hops in miniature (Trifolium agrarium, and T. procumbens). -- Hop flea (Zoöl.), a small flea beetle (Haltica concinna), very injurious to hops. -- Hop fly (Zoöl.), an aphid (Phorodon humuli), very injurious to hop vines. -- Hop froth f…

To adorn, as a book or page with borders, initial letters, or miniature pictures in colors and gold, as was done in manuscripts of the Middle Ages.

One whose occupation is to adorn books, especially manuscripts, with miniatures, borders, etc. See Illuminate, v. t., 3.

A small degree or scale; miniature. " His picture in little." Shak. A little, to or in a small degree; to a limited extent; somewhat; for a short time. " Stay a little." Shak. The painter flattered her a little. Shak. -- By little and little, or Little by little, by slow degrees; piecemeal; gradually.…

A little case for holding a miniature or lock of hair, usually suspended from a necklace or watch chain.

A little world; a miniature universe. Hence (so called by Paracelsus), a man, as a supposed epitome of the exterior universe or great world. Opposed to macrocosm. Shak.

A painter of miniatures.

A miniature representation of a thing, with the several parts in due proportion; sometimes, a facsimile of the same size. In charts, in maps, and eke in models made. Gascoigne. I had my father's signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal. Shak. You have the models of several ancient temples, though the…

A sertularian hydroid, especially Sertularia abietina, which branches like a miniature fir tree.

Hence, a small picture; a miniature. [Obs.]

(Bot.) (a) Any moss or lichen growing on trees. (b) Any species of moss in the form of a miniature tree. -- Tree mouse (Zoöl.), any one of several species of African mice of the subfamily Dendromyinæ. They have long claws and habitually live in trees. -- Tree nymph, a wood nymph. See Dryad. -- Tree of a saddle, a s…