runty adj

1 well below average height [syn: pint-size, pint-sized, sawed-off, sawn-off]

2 (used especially of persons) of inferior size [syn: puny, shrimpy]

English

Adjective

runty

1. Having the characteristics of a runt.
   • 1965, June 17, “Love—and Death—in the African Night”, The Times

     From the light above us thin shadows flickered and a runty little image of the defiance in front of me fell on to the table. [...] The little runt was still singed and groggy [...]

   • 1969, October 4, Roy Hay, “Peaches and Plums”, The Times

     Only later did I discover that a runty old almond tree, hidden behind a laburnum, riddled with peach leaf curl, [...]

2. diminutive

Lilliputian, Tom Thumb, couchant, crouched, debased, depressed, dumpy, dwarf, dwarfed, dwarfish, elfin, flat, incipient, knee-high, knocked flat, laid low, low, low-built, low-hung, low-level, low-leveled, low-lying, low-set, low-statured, meager, midget, nanoid, neap, prone, pygmy, recumbent, rudimental, rudimentary, scraggy, scrubby, short, shriveled, shrunk, shrunken, squat, squatty, stooped, stumpy, stunt, stunted, supine, undersize, undersized, unelevated, wizened