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To act reciprocally, so as to augment, diminish, or otherwise affect one another; -- said of waves, rays of light, heat, etc. See Interference, 2.

ece of iron which connects the two poles, for the purpose of keeping the magnetic power undiminished; an armature.

Saving labor; adapted to supersede or diminish the labor of men; as, laborsaving machinery.

To make less; to reduce; to make smaller, or fewer; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; as, to lessen a kingdom, or a population; to lessen speed, rank, fortune. Charity . . . shall lessen his punishment. Calamy. St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it. Atterbury.

, to tell; to tattle; to divulge something. [Low] -- To let up, to become less severe; to diminish; to cease; as, when the storm lets up. [Colloq.]

Not of the legal, standard, or usual weight; clipped; diminished; as, light coin.

To fall; to sink; to grow less; to diminish; to decrease; as, the river lowered as rapidly as it rose.

Smoothness; freedom from friction; also, property, which diminishes friction; as, the lubricity of oil. Ray.

Greatly diminished size or form; reduced scale.

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.

The act of diminishing, or the state of being diminished; diminution. [Obs.]

To diminish. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

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

and a moving cylinder of moistened chalk, or a moving slip of paper, on which it rests is diminished by the passage of a current between the point and the moving surface. -- Mo`to*graph"ic (#), a.

To make pale; to diminish the brightness of. The glowpale his uneffectual fire. Shak.

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

Soft; -- a direction to the performer to execute a certain passage softly, and with diminished volume of tone. (Abbrev. p.)

A glass through which objects appear multiplied, but diminished in size. [R.]

Graphite, or black lead, often used on the bottoms of racing vessels to diminish friction.