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To lessen; to palliate; to lessen or weaken the force of; to diminish the conception of, as crime, guilt, faults, ills, accusations, etc.; -- opposed to aggravate. But fortune there extenuates the crime. Dryden. Let us extenuate, conceal, adorn the unpleasing reality. I. Taylor.

he state of being extenuated; the act of making thin, slender, or lean, or of palliating; diminishing, or lessening; palliation, as of a crime; mitigation, as of punishment. To listen . . . to every extenuation of what is evil. I. Taylor.

To make easy or less difficult; to free from difficulty or impediment; to lessen the labor of; as, to facilitate the execution of a task. To invite and facilitate that line of proceeding which the times call for. I. Taylor.

To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish. The stars shall fade away. Addison He makes a swanlike end, Fading in music. Shak.

That has lost freshness, color, or brightness; grown dim. "His faded cheek." Milton. Where the faded moon Made a dim silver twilight. Keats.

Excrement; ordure; also, settlings; sediment after infusion or distillation. [Written also feces.]

To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink. When earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail. Milton.

fairmanner; clearly; openly; plainly; fully; distinctly; frankly. Even the nature of Mr. Dimmesdale's disease had never fairly been revealed to him. Hawthorne.

An imaginary supernatural being or spirit, supposed to assume a human form (usually diminutive), either male or female, and to meddle for good or evil in the affairs of mankind; a fay. See Elf, and Demon. The fourth kind of spirit [is] called the Fairy. K. James. And now about the caldron sing, Like elves and fairies i…

To diminish; to lessen or lower. [Obs.] Upon lessening interest to four per cent, you fall the price of your native commodities. Locke.

dregs; sediment; excrement. See FÆces.

That which is feculent; sediment; lees; dregs.

Foul with extraneous or impure substances; abounding with sediment or excrementitious matter; muddy; thick; turbid. Both his hands most filthy feculent. Spenser.

ennel. N.Damascena is common in gardens. N.sativa furnishes the fennel seed, used as a condiment, etc., in India. These seeds are the "fitches" mentioned in Isaiah (xxviii. 25). -- Fennel water (Med.), the distilled water of fennel seed. It is stimulant and carminative. -- Giant fennel (Ferula communis), has stems fu…

To change by fine gradations; as (Naut.), to fine down a ship's lines, to diminish her lines gradually. I often sate at home On evenings, watching how they fined themselves With gradual conscience to a perfect night. Browning.

reflectors, so as to show a flash of light every few seconds, alternating with periods of dimness. Knight. -- Flash in the pan, the flashing of the priming in the pan of a flintlock musket without discharging the piece; hence, sudden, spasmodic effort that accomplishes nothing.

The process by which small particles of fine soils and sediments aggregate into larger lumps.

A variable quantity, considered as increasing or diminishing; - - called, in the modern calculus, the function or integral.

wers, and branches, in architecture, intended to ornament and enrich capitals, friezes, pediments, etc. Foliage plant (Bot.), any plant cultivated for the beauty of its leaves, as many kinds of Begonia and Coleus.

The past; the time before the present. "A very dim foretime." J. C. Shairp.