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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.

One who, or that which, weakens. "[Fastings] weakeners of sin." South.

To weaken; to enfeeble; to reduce; as, an old appalled wight. [Obs.] Chaucer. Whine, of its own nature, will not congeal and freeze, only it will lose the strength, and become appalled in extremity of cold. Holland.

A weakening or cessation of the contractile power of the heart.

To cause to waste away or become abortive; to starve or weaken.

To lessen the amount, force, or value of; to make less 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.…

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

To repress or weaken, as any appetite, desire, or power of the mind; to impair the force, keenness, or susceptibility, of; as, to blunt the feelings.

To weaken or impair, as health, spirit, or mind. An old man, broken with the storms of state. Shak.

Hogged; so weakened in the frame as to droop at each end; -- said of a ship. Totten.

primitive Christian rites and ceremonies. But centuries of subjection to Moslem rule have weakened and degraded it.

To weaken; to impair; to render decrepit. [Obs.] Till length of years, And sedentary numbness, craze my limbs. Milton.

The state of being broken down or weakened; as, the craziness of a ship, or of the limbs.

Broken, weakened, or dissordered in intellect; shattered; demented; deranged. Over moist and crazy brains. Hudibras.

r deject; to deaden; to cloud; to check or restrain, as action or vigor; to make dull; to weaken; to discourage. "To damp your tender hopes." Akenside. Usury dulls and damps all industries, improvements, and new inventions, wherein money would be stirring if it were not for this slug. Bacon. How many a day has been dam…

To impair the strength of; to weaken; to enfeeble; as, to debilitate the body by intemperance. Various ails debilitate the mind. Jenyns. The debilitated frame of Mr. Bertram was exhausted by this last effort. Sir W. Scott.

to render corrupt or untrustworthy in morals, in discipline, in courage, spirit, etc.; to weaken in spirit or efficiency. The demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime. Walsh. The vices of the nobility had demoralized the army. Bancroft.

f, 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.

To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken. This doth nothing diminish their opinion. Robynson (More's Utopia). I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. Ezek. xxix. 15. O thou . . . at whose sight all the stars Hide their diminished heads. Milton.…

The act of discouraging, or the state of being discouraged; depression or weakening of confidence; dejection.