Attenuate

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Attenuate \At*ten"u*ate\, v. i.
     To become thin, slender, or fine; to grow less; to lessen.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The attention attenuates as its sphere contracts.
                                                    --Coleridge.


     [1913 Webster] Attenuate

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Attenuate \At*ten"u*ate\, Attenuated \At*ten"u*a`ted\, a. [L.
     attenuatus, p. p.]
     1. Made thin or slender.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Made thin or less viscid; rarefied. --Bacon.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Attenuate \At*ten"u*ate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Attenuated}; p.
     pr. & vb. n. {Attenuating}.] [L. attenuatus, p. p. of
     attenuare; ad + tenuare to make thin, tenuis thin. See
     {Thin}.]
     1. To make thin or slender, as by mechanical or chemical
        action upon inanimate objects, or by the effects of
        starvation, disease, etc., upon living bodies.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To make thin or less consistent; to render less viscid or
        dense; to rarefy. Specifically: To subtilize, as the
        humors of the body, or to break them into finer parts.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To lessen the amount, force, or value of; to make less
        complex; to weaken.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              To undersell our rivals . . . has led the
              manufacturer to . . . attenuate his processes, in
              the allotment of tasks, to an extreme point. --I.
                                                    Taylor.
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              We may reject and reject till we attenuate history
              into sapless meagerness.              --Sir F.
                                                    Palgrave.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  attenuate
       adj : reduced in strength; "the faded tones of an old recording"
             [syn: {attenuated}, {faded}, {weakened}]
       v 1: weaken the consistency of (a chemical substance) [syn: {rarefy}]
       2: become weaker, in strength, value, or magnitude

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  95 Moby Thesaurus words for "attenuate":
     Sanforize, abate, adulterate, alleviate, attenuated, baptize, bate,
     blow off, blunt, cast forth, clear away, constrict, consume,
     contract, cramp, cripple, cut, damp, dampen, deaden, debilitate,
     deflate, dematerialize, devitalize, dilute, disable, disembody,
     dispel, dissipate, dissolve, drive away, dry up, dull, ease,
     emacerate, emaciate, enervate, enfeeble, etherealize, evaporate,
     eviscerate, exhaust, expand, extenuate, gruel, irrigate, lay low,
     lessen, macerate, mitigate, parch, preshrink, rare, rarefied,
     rarefy, rattle, reduce, reedy, remit, sap, sear, shake, shake up,
     shrink, shrivel, slacken, slender, slight, slim, soften up,
     spiritualize, subtile, subtilize, subtle, tenuous, thin, thin away,
     thin down, thin out, twiggy, unbrace, undermine, unman, unnerve,
     unstrengthen, unstring, volatilize, waste, waste away, water,
     water down, weaken, weazen, wither, wizen