attenuate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to become weaker, in strength, value, or magnitude

   Our position will continue to attenuate if we do not act.

2. 2
   verb

   to weaken the consistency of a chemical substance

   We attenuated the substance.

3. 3
   verb

   To reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree.

   A manor-house clock from the far depths of shadow struck the hour, one, in a small, attenuated tone.

4. 4
   verb

   To make thinner, as by physically reshaping, starving, or decaying.

   Clumps of attenuated turkeys were suspended here and there.

The verb if first attested in 1530, the adjective in 1626; borrowed from Latin attenuātus, the perfect passive participle of attenuō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + tenuo (“to make thin”), itself from tenuis (“thin”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

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