attenuate
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin attenuāre, from attenuāt-, at- = ad-, ad- (“to”) + tenuāre (“to make thin”), tenuis (“thin”).
Pronunciation
Verb
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- (transitive) To reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree.
- 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, ch. 40:
- A manor-house clock from the far depths of shadow struck the hour, one, in a small, attenuated tone.
- 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, ch. 40:
- (transitive) To make thinner, as by physically reshaping, starving, or decaying.
- 1899, Stephen Crane, His New Mittens, ch. 4:
- Clumps of attenuated turkeys were suspended here and there.
- 1906, E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Malefactor, ch. 1:
- Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded.
- 1899, Stephen Crane, His New Mittens, ch. 4:
- (intransitive) To become thin or fine; to grow less.
- (transitive) To weaken.
- (Can we date this quote by Coleridge and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- The attention attenuates as its sphere contracts.
- (Can we date this quote by Sir F. Palgrave and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagreness.
- (Can we date this quote by Coleridge and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (transitive) To rarefy.
- 1901, H. G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon, ch. 23:
- "It speedily became apparent that the entire strangeness of our circumstances and surroundings—great loss of weight, attenuated but highly oxygenated air, consequent exaggeration of the results of muscular effort, rapid development of weird plants from obscure spores, lurid sky—was exciting my companion unduly."
- 1901, H. G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon, ch. 23:
- (transitive, medicine) To reduce the virulence of a bacterium or virus.
- (transitive, electronics) To reduce the amplitude of an electrical, radio, or optical signal.
Antonyms
- amplify (electronics)
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
To reduce
|
To weaken
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To rarefy
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Adjective
attenuate (comparative more attenuate, superlative most attenuate)
Translations
botany: tapering towards the base
|
Italian
Verb
attenuate
- second-person plural present indicative of attenuare
- second-person plural imperative of attenuare
- feminine plural of attenuato
Latin
Verb
(deprecated template usage) attenuāte
References
- “attenuate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “attenuate”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- attenuate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- attenuate in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
Categories:
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- Requests for date/Coleridge
- Requests for date/Sir F. Palgrave
- en:Medicine
- en:Electronics
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- en:Botany
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian verb forms
- Italian past participle forms
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms