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The act of reducing to atoms, or very minute particles; or the state of being so reduced.

A wasting away from want of nourishment; diminution in bulk or slow emaciation of the body or of any part. Milton.

The process of weakening in intensity; diminution of virulence; as, the attenuation of virus.

operties of the term from which it is derived; as, dullard, one very dull. Opposed to diminutive. Gibbs.

The feeding of the body upon itself, as in fasting; nutrition by consumption of one's own tissues.

spar, a variety of oligoclase with internal firelike reflections due to the presence of minute crystals, probably of hematite; sunstone.

e by trees; any broad passageway thus bordered. An avenue of tall elms and branching chestnuts. W. Black.

A small image of an infant; a doll. Babies in the eyes, the minute reflection which one sees of one's self in the eyes of another. She clung about his neck, gave him ten kisses, Toyed with his locks, looked babies in his eyes. Heywood.

One of the minute bodies seen in the divided nucleoli of some Infusoria after conjugation.

of the gourd family, with red or orange-yellow cucumber-shaped fruit of the size of a walnut, used as a vulnerary, and in liniments and poultices. -- Balsam fir (Bot.), the American coniferous tree, Abies balsamea, from which the useful Canada balsam is derived. -- Balsam of copaiba. See Copaiba. -- Balsam of Mecca…

-- Barbados leg (Med.), a species of elephantiasis incident to hot climates. -- Barbados nuts, the seeds of the Jatropha curcas, a plant growing in South America and elsewhere. The seeds and their acrid oil are used in medicine as a purgative. See Physic nut.

Barbellate with diminutive hairs or barbs.

A very minute barb or beard. Booth.

n of barley) and candied. -- Barley water, a decoction of barley, used in medicine, as a nutritive and demulcent.

A diminutive of the bar, having one fourth its width.

Abatement; diminution. Moxon. Batement light (Arch.), a window or one division of a window having vertical sides, but with the sill not horizontal, as where it follows the rake of a staircase.

Reddish brown; of the color of a chestnut; -- applied to the color of horses. Bay cat (Zoöl.), a wild cat of Africa and the East Indies (Felis aurata). -- Bay lynx (Zoöl.), the common American lynx (Felis, or Lynx, rufa).

upanea apivora) which feeds upon the honeybee. See Robber fly. -- Bee louse (Zoöl.), a minute, wingless, dipterous insect (Braula cæca) parasitic on hive bees. -- Bee martin (Zoöl.), the kingbird (Tyrannus Carolinensis) which occasionally feeds on bees. -- Bee moth (Zoöl.), a moth (Galleria cereana) whose larvæ feed…

Minute acicular or dendritic crystalline forms sometimes observed in glassy volcanic rocks.

species of pepper (Piper betle), the leaves of which are chewed, with the areca or betel nut and a little shell lime, by the inhabitants of the East Indies. I is a woody climber with ovate manynerved leaves.