| Library / English Dictionary |
THINNING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of diluting something
Example:
the thinning of paint with turpentine
Synonyms:
cutting; thinning
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("thinning" is a kind of...):
dilution (weakening (reducing the concentration) by the addition of water or a thinner)
Derivation:
thin (lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb thin
Context examples:
In the few locations where glaciers have been stable or thickening rather than thinning, the study found that flow speeds also have been increasing slightly.
(NASA Finds Asian Glaciers Slowed by Ice Loss, NASA)
Examples include thickening, thinning, deformity, and separation from the nail bed.
(Nail Changes, NCI Thesaurus)
Two of its tributary glaciers also are flowing faster and thinning rapidly.
(Antarctica’s Larsen B Ice Shelf Nearing Its Final Act, NASA)
The authors speculate that delayed freezing of the sea surface may contribute to the thinning trend, as heavy snowfalls in September and October now fall into the open ocean.
(Snow cover on Arctic Sea ice has thinned 30 to 50 percent, NASA)
Among the most significant: a previously unmeasured acceleration of glacier flow into Antarctica’s Getz Ice Shelf, on the southwestern part of the continent — likely a result of ice-shelf thinning.
(New Study Brings Antarctic Ice Loss Into Sharper Focus, NASA)
A shortening and thinning of cervix due to the action of uterine contractions during active labor to allow for fetal descent.
(Cervical Effacement, NCI Thesaurus)
Patients may be shorter than average, and have health problems such as loss and graying of hair, hardening of the arteries, thinning of the bones, diabetes, and thin, hardened skin.
(Adult progeria, NCI Dictionary)
In previous studies, researchers examining the eyes of people who had died from Alzheimer's have reported that the eyes of such patients showed signs of thinning in the center of the retina and degradation of the optic nerve.
(Predicting Alzheimer's Disease May Be Possible Using Eye Exam, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
The team found an association between increased BMI and significant reductions in the average (mean) thickness of the cortex, as well as thinning in the pre-frontal region of the cortex, an area associated with cognitive control.
(Childhood obesity linked to structural differences in key brain regions, University of Cambridge)
Plumes of the warm, mineral-laden water gush from the seafloor and travel upward, thinning the moon's ice shell from beneath to only half a mile to 3 miles (1 to 5 kilometers) at the south pole. (The average global thickness of the ice is thought to be about 12 to 16 miles, or 20 to 25 kilometers.) And this same water is then expelled into space through fractures in the ice.
(Powering Saturn's Active Ocean Moon, NASA)
