Wiktionary
n. (context star English) A small, relatively cool star of the main sequence; most stars in the Milky Way are red dwarfs.
WordNet
n. a small cool star; approximately 100 times the mass of Jupiter [syn: red dwarf star]
Wikipedia
A red dwarf is a small and relatively cool star on the main sequence, of either K or M spectral type. Red dwarfs range in mass from a low of 0.075 solar masses to about and have a surface temperature of less than 4,000 K.
Red dwarfs are by far the most common type of star in the Milky Way, at least in the neighborhood of the Sun, but because of their low luminosity, individual red dwarfs cannot be easily observed. From Earth, not one is visible to the naked eye. Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, is a red dwarf (Type M5, apparent magnitude 11.05), as are twenty of the next thirty nearest stars. According to some estimates, red dwarfs make up three-quarters of the stars in the Milky Way.
Stellar models indicate that red dwarfs less than are fully convective. Hence the helium produced by the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen is constantly remixed throughout the star, avoiding its buildup at the core and prolonging the period of fusion. Red dwarfs therefore develop very slowly, maintaining a constant luminosity and spectral type for trillions of years, until their fuel is depleted. Because of the comparatively short age of the universe, no red dwarfs exist at advanced stages of evolution.
Usage examples of "red dwarf".
Kristine Kochanski had been the one and only good thing that had happened to Lister since he'd signed up with Red Dwarf.
His hardware was far too vast to be evacuated on to the small transporter, and so Rimmer felt it was only decent to switch him on and let him enjoy the fifty-five seconds of run-time that remained to him, before the planet oblivionized Red Dwarf, and everything on it.
So hecalmly offered to ditch the red dwarf if I would deliver Yolara.
There might be a time, the footman thought, when it paid to hitch your wagon to a star, even if said star was a red dwarf.
The other Dwarf was a Red Dwarf with hair rather like a Fox’.
The other Dwarf was a Red Dwarf with hair rather like a Fox's and he was called Trumpkin.
The numbers go up, and once a star has changed to a red dwarf it never changes back.
We'll find two consecutive images in which exactly one star has changed to become a red dwarf in the interval between the two.
They must have come from a world smaller than Earth, circling a red dwarf star in close orbit.