Search the Dictionary

water into ice. If the whole atmosphere were converted into water. T. Burnet. That still lessens The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy. Milton.

"So great is his natural eloquence, that he cuts doun the finest orator." Addison (c) To lessen; to retrench; to curtail; as, to cut down expenses. (d) (Naut.) To raze; as, to cut down a frigate into a sloop. -- To cut the knot or the Gordian knot, to dispose of a difficulty summarily; to solve it by prompt, arbitrar…

To depress; to check; to make dull; to lessen. In a way that considerably dampened our enthusiasm. The Century.

aving a spring interposed between the driving mechanism and the hammer head, or helve, to lessen the recoil of the hammer and reduce the shock upon the mechanism.

To make as dead; to impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation; to lessen the force or acuteness of; to blunt; as, to deaden the natural powers or feelings; to deaden a sound.

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 presume to know . . . Who thrives, and who declines. Shak.…

To reduce in estimation, character, or reputation; to lessen the value of; to lower the physical, moral, or intellectual character of; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man. O miserable mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserved! Milton. He pride . . . str…

To corrupt or undermine in morals; to destroy or lessen the effect of moral principles on; to render corrupt or untrustworthy in morals, in discipline, in courage, spirit, etc.; to weaken in spirit or efficiency. The demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime. Walsh. The vices of the nobility had dem…

To lessen in price or estimated value; to lower the worth of; to represent as of little value or claim to esteem; to undervalue. Addison. Which . . . some over-severe phoilosophers may look upon fastidiously, or undervalue and depreciate. Cudworth. To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to dep…

The act of lessening, or seeking to lessen, price, value, or reputation.

To lessen the activity of; to make dull; embarrass, as trade, commerce, etc.

A drawing of humors or fluids from one part of the body to another, to relieve or lessen a morbid process.

To lessen; to detract from; to disparage; to depreciate; -- said of a person or thing. [R.] Anything . . . that should derogate, minish, or hurt his glory and his name. Sir T. More.

The act of derogating, partly repealing, or lessening in value; disparagement; detraction; depreciation; -- followed by of, from, or to. I hope it is no derogation to the Christian religion. Locke. He counted it no derogation of his manhood to be seen to weep. F. W. Robertson.

Tending to derogate, or lessen in value; expressing derogation; detracting; injurious; -- with from to, or unto. Acts of Parliament derogatory from the power of subsequent Parliaments bind not. Blackstone. His language was severely censured by some of his brother peers as derogatory to their other. Macaulay. Derogatory…

To take away a part or something, especially from one's credit; to lessen reputation; to derogate; to defame; -- often with from. It has been the fashion to detract both from the moral and literary character of Cicero. V. Knox.

The act of taking away from the reputation or good name of another; a lessening or cheapening in the estimation of others; the act of depreciating another, from envy or malice; calumny.

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.

Capable of being diminished or lessened.

Lessening. Bp. Sanderson.