miniature

plural miniatures

1. Greatly diminished size or form; reduced scale.
2. A small version of something; a model of reduced scale.

   There was a miniature of a whaling ship in a glass bottle over the mantelpiece.

   1 more example

   The twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany are conceived as a miniature of the whole year, the character of each particular day answering to the character of a particular month.

   1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 9, page 324

3. A small, highly detailed painting, a portrait miniature.

   The miniature was a picture of Leo's Greek mother - a lovely, dark-eyed creature.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

4. The art of painting such highly detailed miniature works.
5. An illustration in an illuminated manuscript.
6. A musical composition which is short in duration.

   Sacha composed a miniature for strings as a final project at the conservatory.

7. board gamesA chess game which is concluded with very few moves.
8. roleplaying games; board games; roleplaying games; board gamesA token in a game representing a unit or character.

   Jack had dozens of miniatures of Napoleonic footsoldiers painted in detailed period regalia for his wargames.

9. Lettering in red; rubric distinction.
10. A particular feature or trait.

    There's no miniature / In her fair face, but is a copious theme / Which would, discoursed at large of, make a volume.

    1627, Philip Massinger, “The Great Duke of Florence”, in William Gifford, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger, published 1845, act 5, scene 3, page 221

comparative more miniature · superlative most miniature

1. Smaller than normal.

   I find miniature dogs annoying; they seem to yap more than full-size dogs.

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   Scientists have grown miniature human brains in test tubes, creating a "tool" that will allow them to watch how the organs develop in the womb and, they hope, increase their understanding of neurological and mental problems. ¶ Just a few millimetres across, the "cerebral organoids" are built up of layers of brain cells with defined regions that resemble those seen in immature, embryonic brains.

   2013 September 6, Alok Jha, “Miniature brains grown in lab”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 13, page 39

present singular third person miniatures · participle present miniaturing · participle past miniatured · past miniatured

1. transitiveTo make smaller than normal; to reproduce in miniature.

   […] a moon holds its gray glories miniatured in rock and dust.

   1968, Samuel R. Delany, chapter 5, in Nova, New York: Doubleday

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   If it be ever so little removed, or seen thro’ the miniaturing End of the Perspective Glass, it either wholly escapes their Sight, or appears to them a mere Minutity.

   1755, John Shebbeare, An Answer to a Pamphlet, called A Second Letter to the People, London: M. Cooper, page 29

   The smile of the babe was in my eye, and in my heart. I saw miniatur’d forth, the features of the murdered Edward.

   1780, Samuel Jackson Pratt, Emma Corbett, Bath: Pratt and Clinch, Volume 2, Letter 67, p. ,101

   c. 1807, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, letter to Joseph Cottle, cited in Joseph Cottle, Early Recollections, Chiefly Relating to the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, London: Longman, Rees, 1837, Volume 2, p. 131, Now what the globe is in geography, miniaturing in order to manifest the truth, such is a poem to that image of God, which we were created into […]

   Dad had had Lily’s Haiti photos developed, and […] among them was a sunset miniatured in purple […]

   2009, Helen Oyeyemi, White Is for Witching, New York: Nan A. Talese, pages 98-99