DECREASE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Decrease

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/dɪkrˈis/ /dˈikrˌis/ Listen

noun

Decrease n.

1.

A becoming less; gradual diminution; decay; as, a decrease of revenue or of strength.

2.

The wane of the moon.

verb

Decrease v. t. To cause to grow less; to diminish gradually; as, extravagance decreases one's means. "That might decrease their present store."

Decrease v. i. (past & past part. decreased; pres. part. decreasing) To grow less, opposed to increase; to be diminished gradually, in size, degree, number, duration, etc., or in strength, quality, or excellence; as, they days decrease in length from June to December. "He must increase, but I must decrease."

Synonyms: To Decrease, Diminish. Things usually decrease or fall off by degrees, and from within, or through some cause which is imperceptible; as, the flood decreases; the cold decreases; their affection has decreased. Things commonly diminish by an influence from without, or one which is apparent; as, the army was diminished by disease; his property is diminishing through extravagance; their affection has diminished since their separation their separation. The turn of thought, however, is often such that these words may be interchanged. "The olive leaf, which certainly them told The flood decreased." "Crete's ample fields diminish to our eye; Before the Boreal blasts the vessels fly."

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Etymology of 'Decrease'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Decrease" Quotes from Famous Books

... being able to speak well, and one-sixth imperfectly, while over three-fifths do not speak at all. The dependence of the ability to speak upon the age of becoming deaf is clearly in evidence here, the proportion of those not able to speak showing a great decrease with the rise of this age. Thus, of those born deaf, 83.5 per cent cannot speak at all; of those becoming deaf after birth and under five, 74.6 per cent; of those becoming deaf after five and under twenty, 26.5 ...

— The Deaf - Their Position in Society and the Provision for Their - Education in the United States • Harry Best

... feeds, Emitting odours reekingly rank, Drift under the clumps of the water-weeds, And broken bottles invade the reeds, And the wavy swell of the many-barged tug Breaks, and befouls the green Thames' bank. And the steady decrease of the snow-plumed throng That sail the upper Thames reaches among, Was prophesied ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, August 9, 1890. • Various

... advocate in as pretty a manner the policy he was dissecting. Lord Munnibagge, a great authority in economic matters, said that a weaker case had never been presented to Parliament. To send away Ginx's Baby to a colony at imperial expense was at once to rob the pockets of the rich and to decrease our labor-power. There was no necessity for it. Ginx's Baby could not starve in a country like this. He (Lord Munnibagge) had never heard of a case of a baby starving. There was no such wide-spread distress as was ...

— Ginx's Baby • Edward Jenkins

... nor decrease. If my head must of necessity lose as much weight as my trunk gains, and vice versa, then it is a clear case that I shall never be heavier. But why cannot my head remain stationary, whilst my trunk grows heavier? This is what you had ...

— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... think in theoretical terms; he must think concretely and from the point of view of the man he is trying to convince. As one very excellent salesman has put it, he must get the prospect's own story and tell it to him in different words, and if he can actually show him a way to decrease expenses or to increase output he will win not only his attention, but his ...

— The Book of Business Etiquette • Nella Henney

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