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To make thin; to attenuate. [R.]

ess complex; to weaken. To undersell our rivals . . . has led the manufacturer to . . . attenuate his processes, in the allotment of tasks, to an extreme point. I. Taylor. We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagerness. Sir F. Palgrave.

Made thin or slender.

o lessen the thickness. His body behind the head becomes broad, from whence it is again extenuated all the way to the tail. Grew.

scene. Prescott. The defense made by the prisioner's counsel did rather aggravate than extenuate his crime. Addison.

To extenuate; to palliate. [R.] He alleviates his fault by an excuse. Johnson.

lor, etc., of, by mixing; to reduce, especially by the addition of water; to temper; to attenuate; to weaken. Lest these colors should be diluted and weakened by the mixture of any adventitious light. Sir I. Newton.

Serving to dissolve or attenuate viscid matter, and so to remove obstructions; deobstruent. -- n.

That which excuses; that which extenuates or justifies a fault. "It hath the excuse of youth." Shak. If eyes were made for seeing. Then beauty is its own excuse for being. Emerson.

The act of axtenuating or the 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.

One who extenuates.

Tending to extenuate or palliate. Croker.

Thin; attenuate; keen; as, a fine edge.

Spun so as to be fine; drawn to a fine thread; attenuated; hence, unsubstantial; visionary; as, finespun theories.

Done beforehand; anticipative. And so extenuate the forehand sin. Shak.

Attenuated, as with fasting or suffering; lean; meager; pinched and grim. "The gaunt mastiff." Pope. A mysterious but visible pestilence, striding gaunt and fleshless across our land. Nichols.

Thick; dense; not attenuated; as, a gross medium.

he mixture of another substance, or by evaporating the thinner parts. Acids dissolve or attenuate; alkalies precipitate or incrassate. Sir I. Newton. Liquors which time hath incrassated into jellies. Sir T. Browne.

To suppress or weaken the force of; to extenuate; to palliate; to tell by degrees, instead of directly and frankly; to clip, as words or expressions; to utter half and keep back half of. I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say -- "I love you." Shak. Siren, now mince the sin, And mollify damnation with a…

To cover with excuses; to conceal the enormity of, by excuses and apologies; to extenuate; as, to palliate faults. They never hide or palliate their vices. Swift.