munchkin

[ muhnch-kin ]

noun(often initial capital letter)
  1. a small person, especially one who is dwarfish or elfin in appearance.

  2. Informal. a child: The munchkins enjoyed holding and feeding the animals in the petting zoo.

Origin of munchkin

1
After the Munchkins, a dwarflike race portrayed in L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and other fantasy novels

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use munchkin in a sentence

  • Before them stood a little man about the same size as the Munchkins.

  • Evidently the Munchkins were good farmers and able to raise large crops.

  • Her tears seemed to grieve the kind-hearted Munchkins, for they immediately took out their handkerchiefs and began to weep also.

  • The Munchkins and the Witch first looked at one another, and then at Dorothy, and then shook their heads.

British Dictionary definitions for munchkin

munchkin

/ (ˈmʌntʃkɪn) /


noun
  1. informal, mainly US an undersized person or a child, esp an appealing one

  2. a breed of medium-sized cat with short legs

Origin of munchkin

1
C20: from the Munchkins, a dwarfish race of people in L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012