Adjacent Words

Lessening definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

LESS'ENING, ppr. Reducing in bulk, amount or degree; degrading.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a change downward; "there was a decrease in his temperature as the fever subsided"; "there was a sharp drop-off in sales" [syn: decrease, lessening, drop-off] [ant: increase]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Lessen Less"en (l[e^]s"'n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lessened (-'nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Lessening.] [From Less, a.] To make less; to reduce; to make smaller, or fewer; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; as, to lessen a kingdom, or a population; to lessen speed, rank, fortune. Charity . . . shall lessen his punishment. --Calamy. St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it. --Atterbury. Syn: To diminish; reduce; abate; decrease; lower; impair; weaken; degrade.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see lessen

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Diminution, decrement, decrease, reduction, abatement.

Moby Thesaurus

abatement, abating, abridgment, allaying, allayment, alleviating, alleviation, analgesia, anesthesia, anesthetizing, appeasement, assuagement, assuaging, attenuation, attrition, blunting, calming, chastening, contraction, contractive, curtailment, cushioning, cut, cutting, dampening, damping, deadening, declining, decrease, decreasing, decrement, decrescence, decrescendo, decrescent, deduction, deflation, deliquescent, demulsion, depletion, depreciation, depression, derogation, detraction, diminishing, diminishment, diminuendo, diminution, dip, disparagement, dulcification, dulling, dwindling, dying, dying off, ease, easement, easing, extenuation, extraction, fade-out, falling-off, hushing, impairment, languishing, languishment, leniency, letdown, letup, lightening, loosening, lowering, lulling, miniaturization, mitigating, mitigation, modulation, mollification, numbing, on the wane, pacification, palliation, quietening, quieting, reducing, reduction, reductive, relaxation, relaxing, relief, remedy, remission, retraction, retrenchment, sagging, salving, scaling down, shortening, shrinkage, simplicity, slackening, softening, soothing, subduement, subduing, subsiding, subtraction, tempering, tranquilization, truncation, waning, weakening