To make smaller in any manner; to reduce in bulk or amount; to lessen; -- opposed to augment or increase. Not diminish, but rather increase, the debt. Barrow.
To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken. This doth nothing diminish their opinion. Robynson (More's Utopia). I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. Ezek. xxix. 15. O thou . . . at whose sight all the stars Hide their diminished heads. Milton.
To make smaller by a half step; to make (an interval) less than minor; as, a diminished seventh.
To take away; to subtract. Neither shall ye diminish aught from it. Deut. iv. 2. Diminished column, one whose upper diameter is less than the lower. -- Diminished, or Diminishing, scale, a scale of gradation used in finding the different points for drawing the spiral curve of the volute. Gwilt. -- Diminishing rule (Arch.), a board cut with a concave edge, for fixing the entasis and curvature of a shaft. -- Diminishing stile (Arch.), a stile which is narrower in one part than in another, as in many glazed doors.
To become or appear less or smaller; to lessen; as, the apparent size of an object diminishes as we recede from it.
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