What does "diminutive" mean?

Additional senses

1. 2.Tending to diminish. [R.] Diminutive of liberty. Shaftesbury.
2. 3.Something of very small size or value; an insignificant thing. Such water flies, diminutives of nature. Shak.
3. 4.(Gram.) A derivative from a noun, denoting a small or a young object of the same kind with that denoted by the primitive; as, gosling, eaglet, lambkin. Babyisms and dear diminutives. Tennyson. Note: The word sometimes denotes a derivative verb which expresses a diminutive or petty form of the action, as scribble.