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To make small, or smaller; to diminish the apparent dimensions of; to lessen.

To diminish; to lessen. The living of poor men thereby minished. Latimer.

e, harsh, rigorous, painful, etc.; to soften; to meliorate; to alleviate; to diminish; to lessen; as, to mitigate heat or cold; to mitigate grief.

m a state of violence, intensity, or excess; to keep within bounds; to make temperate; to lessen; to allay; to repress; to temper; to qualify; as, to moderate rage, action, desires, etc.; to moderate heat or wind. By its astringent quality, it moderates the relaxing quality of warm water. Arbuthnot. To moderate stiff m…

To lessen the breadth of; to contract; to draw into a smaller compass; to reduce the width or extent of. Sir W. Temple.

To reduce in violence; to lessen or abate; to mitigate; to ease withhout curing; as, to palliate a disease. To palliate dullness, and give time a shove. Cowper.

Fig.: To diminish the bulk of; to reduce; to lessen. The king began to pare a little the privilege of clergy. Bacon.

That which removes or lessenc evil, pain, discomfort, uneasiness, etc.; that which gives succor, aid, or comfort; also, the person who relieves from performance of duty by taking the place of another; a relay.

cruches; to render less burdensome or afflicting; to allevate; to- abate; to mitigate; to lessen; as, to relieve pain; to relieve the wants of the poor.

To lessen; to abridge; to curtail; as, to retrench superfluities or expenses. But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched. Milton.

ly by women and children. Here to-morrow with his best ruff on. Shak. His gravity is much lessened since the late proclamation came out against ruffs; . . . they were come to that height of excess herein, that twenty shillings were used to be paid for starching of a ruff. Howell.

To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to shorten work, an allowance of food, etc. Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am shortened by my chain. Dryden.

of those of the voluntary and rational soul; that state of the animal in which there is a lessened acuteness of sensory perception, a confusion of ideas, and a loss of mental control, followed by a more or less unconscious state. "A man that waketh of his sleep." Chaucer. O sleep, thou ape of death. Shak.…

sail from the pressure of the wind, so that it can be more easily reefed or furled, or to lessen the strain. Spilling line (Naut.), a rope used for spilling, or dislodging, the wind from the belly of a sail. Totten.

A slackening or arrest of the blood current in the vessels, due not to a lessening of the heart's beat, but presumably to some abnormal resistance of the capillary walls. It is one of the phenomena observed in the capillaries in inflammation.

constantly; uniformly. The desire of fame betrays an ambitious man into indecencies that lessen his reputation; he is still afraid lest any of his actions should be thrown away in private. Addison. Chemists would be rich if they could still do in great quantities what they have sometimes done in little. Boyle.…

nt to another circuit. Safety switch (Railways), a form of switch contrived to prevent or lessen the danger of derailment of trains. -- Switch back (Railways), an arrangement of tracks whereby elevations otherwise insurmountable are passed. The track ascends by a series of zigzags, the engine running alternately forwa…

rsues, as a man or dog that follows game. And of the trackers of the deer Scarce half the lessening pack was near. Sir W. Scott.

To make weak; to lessen the strength of; to deprive of strength; to debilitate; to enfeeble; to enervate; as, to weaken the body or the mind; to weaken the hands of a magistrate; to weaken the force of an objection or an argument. Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Neh. vi. 9.…