belittle someone

Hey, do you think the phrase "belittle someone" only works for saying "to put down, or to make another person feel as though they aren't important" which a dictionary stated or do you also think it works for "saying things to make someone feel physically small or weak"?
Me and my native learning partner feel like it works the latter way but would like to know your opinion.
An example sentence for the latter meaning would be: "They called me piggy again. They're belittling me!"

I can't agree with you and your partner. First, the dictionary is correct: to belittle someone is to say that they are insignificant, of little or no importance. Second, I've never seen or heard anyone use belittle to describe physical size or strength.

By the way you and all learners should bookmark onelook.com. It gives the definition of a word from many dictionaries.

If you're mocking them in any way, you're belittling them. I don't have a problem with your suggested usage of 'belittle', especially considering definition #2 here.

Skrej said:

If you're mocking them in any way, you're belittling them. I don't have a problem with your suggested usage of 'belittle', especially considering definition #2 here.

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I saw that and wasn't sure if that definition included physical size because the example was made for an abstract thing.

probus said:

I can't agree with you and your partner. I've never seen or heard anyone use belittle to describe physical size or strength.

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Do you know another word that works for what I'm looking for?

ghoul said:

Me and My native learning partner and I

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Note my correction above. Also, I'm not sure what a "native learning partner" is. Do you mean that your learning partner is a native English speaker?

emsr2d2 said:

Note my correction above. Also, I'm not sure what a "native learning partner" is. Do you mean that your learning partner is a native English speaker?

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Exactly. I Should've perhaps been less ambiguous with my wording.
The correction you made was due to my variant lacking manners, right?

belittle - disparage, run down, deprecate, depreciate, denigrate

ghoul said:

The correction you made was due to my variant lacking manners, right?

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Saying that a construction 'lack manners' is not natural. Yours was incorrect.

ghoul said:

Hey, do you think the phrase "belittle someone" only works for saying "to put down, or to make another person feel as though they aren't important" which a dictionary stated or do you also think it works for "saying things to make someone feel physically small or weak"?

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That's the same thing. You can't make someone physically smaller. If you belittle someone, you make them feel small. It's metaphor, where 'small=unimportant'

ghoul said:

The correction you made was due to my variant lacking manners, right?

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No. It's because "Me and my learning partner ..." is grammatically incorrect and "My learning partner and I ..." is grammatically correct. It's that simple.

jutfrank said:

That's the same thing. You can't make someone physically smaller. If you belittle someone, you make them feel small. It's metaphor, where 'small=unimportant'

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Yes, you cannot make someone physically smaller, but you can make them very self-conscious about their lack of size and strength by constantly bringing it up in the form of insults. And I'd argue the victim of that insult may not feel unimportant because of it but rather ashamed or frustrated due to becoming aware of their powerlessness in changing their physique. At least, that's what I had in mind for my victim.

5jj said:

Saying that a construction 'lack manners' is not natural. Yours was incorrect.

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emsr2d2 said:

No. It's because "Me and my learning partner ..." is grammatically incorrect and "My learning partner and I ..." is grammatically correct. It's that simple.

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I vaguely remember a rule like that but I've forgotten about it by now because I've heard the phrase "me and..." so often. I could've sworn that the reason why people mention the other person first was der-Esel-nennt-sich-immer-zuerst. Does even "I and my learning partner" sound unnatural to you?

ghoul said:

der-Esel-nennt-sich-immer-zuerst.

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Please provide an English translation if you you quote other languages on this forum - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/der_Esel_nennt_sich_immer_zuerst

My partner and I agree on this. Correct.
I and My partner and I agree on this. We prefer to put the first-person pronoun second.
My partner and me agree on this. You'll hear it, but the first-person pronoun me is not grammatical.
Me and my partner agree on this You'll hear it, but the first-person pronoun me is not grammatical. We prefer to put the first-person pronoun second.

5jj said:

I and My partner and I agree on this. We prefer to put the first-person pronoun second.

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@5jj I don't think the italic part is what you meant to write.