Meiosis is a deliberate understatement that makes something seem smaller, less important, or less serious than it really is. Poets use it to create irony, modesty, dry humor, or emphasis through restraint. It is closely related to understatement, but it often has a sharper, more dismissive edge.
Example
I lost a kingdom in the storm,
just my old umbrella gone,
and a little pride with it.
Related Definitions
[n] understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary); "saying `I was not a little upset' when you mean `I was very upset' is an example of litotes"
[n] (genetics) cell division that produces reproductive cells in sexually reproducing organisms; the nucleus divides into four nuclei each containing half the chromosome number (leading to gametes in animals and spores in plants)