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

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

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.

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

To impair; to wear away; to diminish. By starts His fretted fortunes give him hope and fear. Shak.

es or fragments. Break all nerves, and fritter all their sense. Pope. To fritter away, to diminish; to pare off; to reduce to nothing by taking away a little at a time; also, to waste piecemeal; as, to fritter away time, strength, credit, etc.

ng together, or nearer together, in masonry, as where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue, or the like.

average. Bouvier. Burrill. -- Gross receipts, the total of the receipts, before they are diminished by any deduction, as for expenses; -- distinguished from net profits. Abbott. -- Gross weight the total weight of merchandise or goods, without deduction for tare, tret, or waste; -- distinguished from neat, or net, we…

Dissolution of the red blood corpuscles with diminished coagulability of the blood; hæmolysis. -- Hæm`a*to*lyt"ic (#), a.

how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Ps. cxix. 97. By how much they would diminish the present extent of the sea, so much they would impair the fertility, and fountains, and rivers of the earth. Bentley.

Relating to, containing, or of the nature of, hyperbole; exaggerating or diminishing beyond the fact; exceeding the truth; as, an hyperbolical expression. "This hyperbolical epitaph." Fuller. Hyperbolic functions (Math.), certain functions which have relations to the hyperbola corresponding to those which sines, cosine…

the emotional and reflex excitability is exaggerated, and the will power correspondingly diminished, so that the patient loses control over the emotions, becomes the victim of imaginary sensations, and often falls into paroxism or fits.

To diminish in value. [Obs.] Hales.

To make worse; to diminish in quantity, value, excellence, or strength; to deteriorate; as, to impair health, character, the mind, value. Time sensibly all things impairs. Roscommon. In years he seemed, but not impaired by years. Pope.

ose value increases when that of the variable increases, and decreases when the latter is diminished.

A burden or charge upon property; a claim or lien upon an estate, which may diminish its value.

hrist and his saints to the contrite soul through the church. It is therefore believed to diminish or destroy for sins the punishment of purgatory.

estate. (c) To slander, tarnish, or impair, as reputation or character. (d) To impair or diminish, as happiness or virtue. (e) To give pain to, as the sensibilities or the feelings; to grieve; to annoy. (f) To impair, as the intellect or mind. When have I injured thee when done thee wrong Shak.