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Lessening   /lˈɛsənɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Lessen  v. t.  (past & past part. lessened; pres. part. lessening)  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." "St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it."
Synonyms: To diminish; reduce; abate; decrease; lower; impair; weaken; degrade.



Lessen  v. i.  To become less; to shrink; to contract; to decrease; to be diminished; as, the apparent magnitude of objects lessens as we recede from them; his care, or his wealth, lessened. "The objection lessens much, and comes to no more than this: there was one witness of no good reputation."



noun
lessening  n.  A change downward; a decrease; a reduction.
Synonyms: decrease, drop-off.



adjective
lessening  adj.  Becoming less in dimension or degree; as, the lessening distance between us.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Lessening" Quotes from Famous Books



... Growth and Power of Appetite." They will see that it is impossible for a man to use alcoholic drinks regularly without laying the foundation for both physical and mental diseases, and, at the same time, lessening his power to make the best of himself in his life-work; while beyond this lies the awful risk of acquiring an appetite which may enslave, degrade and ruin him, body and soul, as it is degrading and ruining its ...
— Grappling with the Monster • T. S. Arthur

... kept account of the weather—a brave record through January and February and March; then, lessening his zeal as spring-planting began, the hard-working summer months have clean pages; while a remorseful energy in November and December ofttimes made him renew in the smoke-dried almanac his crabbed entries. Hence from contemporary ...
— Customs and Fashions in Old New England • Alice Morse Earle

... drawn back, and a new parley is commenced. But everything ends. The policemen turn on their immense heels. The driver and conductor race towards the motor-bus. The bell rings, the motor-bus, quite empty, disappears snorting round the corner into Walham Green. The crowd is now lessening. But it separates with reluctance, many of its members continuing to stare with intense absorption at the place where the puppy lay or the place where the policemen stood. An appreciable interval elapses before the ...
— The Author's Craft • Arnold Bennett

... was brooding even here. The moose, the beaver and the bear had for years been decreasing, and other fur-bearing animals were slowly but surely lessening with them. The natives, aware of this, were now alive, as well, to concurrent changes foreign to their experience. Recent events had awakened them to a sense of the value the white man was beginning to place upon their country as a great storehouse of ...
— Through the Mackenzie Basin - A Narrative of the Athabasca and Peace River Treaty Expedition of 1899 • Charles Mair

... less clearly and insistently. For it was not merely remembered, as we remember most things, but vividly and often reproduced, together with the various melodies of the birds I had listened to; a greater and principal voice in that choir, yet in no wise lessening their first value, nor ever out of ...
— Birds in Town and Village • W. H. Hudson


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