Definition of "dwarfer"

From all we can learn, it has never flowered till the specimens have acquired age and considerable size; nevertheless, we are far from believing it impossible to obtain blossoms from much younger and dwarfer plants.

1846, Joseph Paxton, Magazine of Botany and Register of Flowering Plants

These cutting-plants, if 6 to 10 inches high when set in the open, make excellent bloom that season, although generally giving dwarfer plants than those grown from tubers planted directly in the ground.

1999, L. H. Bailey, Handbook of the Multiplication of Plants, page 223