attenuate

5 definitions found

attenuate - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

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

  Attenuate \At*ten"u*ate\, Attenuated \At*ten"u*a`ted\, a. [L.
     attenuatus, p. p.]
     1. Made thin or slender.
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     2. Made thin or less viscid; rarefied. --Bacon.
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  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.
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     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.
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     3. To lessen the amount, force, or value of; to make less
        complex; to weaken.
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              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.
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attenuate - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

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

attenuate - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  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