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(Mus.) Gradually diminishing in rapidity and loudness.

The act of cutting off, curtailing, or diminishing; the practice of clipping the edges of coins. clipping by Englishmen is robbing the honest man who receives clipped money. Locke.

in fish is prohibited by law. -- Close vowel (Pron.), a vowel which is pronounced with a diminished aperture of the lips, or with contraction of the cavity of the mouth. -- Close to the wind (Naut.), directed as nearly to the point from which the wind blows as it is possible to sail; closehauled; -- said of a vessel.…

A small boat. Yond tall anchoring bark [appears] Diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy Almost too small for sight. Shak.

tion, or payment, for a greater, or a single thing for an aggregate; hence; to lessen; to diminish; as, to commute a sentence of death to one of imprisonment for life; to commute tithes; to commute charges for fares. The sounds water and fire, being once annexed to those two elements, it was certainly more natural to c…

To increase the strength and diminish the bulk of, as of a liquid or an ore; to intensify, by getting rid of useless material; to condense; as, to concentrate acid by evaporation; to concentrate by washing; -- opposed to Ant: dilute. Spirit of vinegar concentrated and reduced to its greatest strength. Arbuthnot.…

the total energy of any material system is a quantity which can neither be increased nor diminished by any action between the parts of the system, though it may be transformed into any of the forms of which energy is susceptible. Clerk Maxwell.

The state or process of being consumed, wasted, or diminished; waste; diminution; loss; decay.

To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet. Years contracting to a moment. Wordsworth.

To eat away by degrees; to wear away or diminish by gradually separating or destroying small particles of, as by action of a strong acid or a caustic alkali. Aqua fortis corroding copper . . . is wont to reduce it to a green- blue solution. Boyle.

To cut off the end or tail, or any part, of; to shorten; to abridge; to diminish; to reduce. I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion. Shak. Our incomes have been curtailed; his salary has been doubled. Macualay.

Diminishing the energy of organs; reducing excitement; as, a debilitant drug.

or draw towards a close, decay, or extinction; to tend to a less perfect state; to become diminished or impaired; to fail; to sink; to diminish; to lessen; as, the day declines; virtue declines; religion declines; business declines. That empire must decline Whose chief support and sinews are of coin. Waller. And presum…

To grow less, -- opposed to increase; to be diminished gradually, in size, degree, number, duration, etc., or in strength, quality, or excellence; as, they days decrease in length from June to December. He must increase, but I must decrease. John iii. 30.

Becoming less and less; diminishing. -- De*creas"ing*ly, adv. Decreasing series (Math.), a series in which each term is numerically smaller than the preceding term.

The quantity by which a variable is diminished. Equal decrement of life. (a) The decrease of life in a group of persons in which the assumed law of mortality is such that of a given large number of persons, all being now of the same age, an equal number shall die each consecutive year. (b) The decrease of life in a gro…

To reduce; to diminish. [Obs.] "Do not deduct it to days." Massinger.

That which is lopped off, diminished, or abated.

That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure; as, fatty degeneration of the liver.

the act or process of diminishing the quantity of fluid in the vessels by bloodletting or otherwise; also excessive evacuation, as in severe diarrhea.