Idioms

a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants

Also found in: Dictionary, Medical, Financial, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
(redirected from dwarf)

a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants

A person whose insights, discoveries, or knowledge in general is not due to their own ingenuity, but rather due to the discoveries or previous work of great minds that have come before. Though this is indeed an exciting discovery toward curing cancer, I am but a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants. If I have been able to make any kind of success in this field, it is only because I am a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants who paved the way ahead of me. That scientist is so arrogant, with zero awareness that he's just a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants who came before him in the field of X-ray crystallography.
See also: giant, of, on, shoulder, standing
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
See also:
References in periodicals archive
BRIDGING THE GAP between the largest planets and the smallest stars, brown dwarfs don't fuse hydrogen in their cores.
The HSC camera allowed the team to distinguish an overdensity of stars, which turned out to be a faint dwarf spheroidal galaxy.
This system is composed of a low-mass object--about 60 times the mass of our own solar system's gas-giant planet, Jupiter--in a much-too-close-for-comfort 78-minute orbit around a voracious white dwarf companion.
Thermonuclear excavation during the star's endgame could also lead to an underweight white dwarf. If enough hydrogen piled up on the core, it might have triggered a runaway nuclear explosion that shaved off the white dwarf's outer layers.
You can buy six Dwarf Lupins Mixed for PS8.99 or buy 24 for just PS17.98 - that's half price.
The theatre, which bills its festive production as "Britain's biggest pantomime", confirmed the show would not feature dwarfs but would be the "magnificent seven as you've never seen them before".
Essam Shehata, who describes himself as a short man, not a dwarf, is very involved in the world of dwarves.
In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Bilbo Baggins sets out to reclaim treasure stolen by dragon Smaug, helped by dwarf pals.
Sadly, my day of action has met with a lukewarm response from dwarf support agencies.
It is a story of how Ruodlieb captures a dwarf, who attempts to negotiate his release by offering to show the locations of two treasures.
Ms Jensen is not a dwarf herself and neither are any of the characters in the book, which is a brilliantly tense and gripping story about insanity, violence, religion, global warming, the evils of methane, the end of the world and all that sort of thing.
Copyright © 2003-2025 Farlex, Inc Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.