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LESSENING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A change downward
Example:
there was a sharp drop-off in sales
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("lessening" is a kind of...):
alteration; change; modification (an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lessening"):
shrinkage; shrinking (process or result of becoming less or smaller)
casualty (a decrease of military personnel or equipment)
sinking (a slow fall or decline (as for lack of strength))
attrition (a wearing down to weaken or destroy)
dwindling; dwindling away (a becoming gradually less)
waning (a gradual decrease in magnitude or extent)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb lessen
Context examples:
No: the years which had destroyed her youth and bloom had only given him a more glowing, manly, open look, in no respect lessening his personal advantages.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
And your friend the secretary, humbly desiring to be heard again, in answer to what the treasurer had objected, concerning the great charge his majesty was at in maintaining you, said, that his excellency, who had the sole disposal of the emperor’s revenue, might easily provide against that evil, by gradually lessening your establishment; by which, for want of sufficient for you would grow weak and faint, and lose your appetite, and consequently, decay, and consume in a few months; neither would the stench of your carcass be then so dangerous, when it should become more than half diminished; and immediately upon your death five or six thousand of his majesty’s subjects might, in two or three days, cut your flesh from your bones, take it away by cart-loads, and bury it in distant parts, to prevent infection, leaving the skeleton as a monument of admiration to posterity.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
She tried to dissuade Mary from going, but in vain; and that being the case, thought it best to accept the Miss Musgroves' much more cordial invitation to herself to go likewise, as she might be useful in turning back with her sister, and lessening the interference in any plan of their own.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
She felt herself ill-used and unfortunate, as did her father; and they were neither of them able to devise any means of lessening their expenses without compromising their dignity, or relinquishing their comforts in a way not to be borne.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
