| Library / English Dictionary |
DIMINISHING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Becoming smaller or less or appearing to do so
Example:
his diminishing respect for her
Classified under:
Similar:
decreasing (becoming less or smaller)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb diminish
Context examples:
Azelastine hydrochloride competes with histamine for the H1 receptor, thereby diminishing the actions of histamine on effector cells and decreasing the histamine-mediated symptoms of allergic reaction, such as bronchoconstriction, vasodilation, increased capillary permeability and spasmodic contractions of gastrointestinal smooth muscle.
(Azelastine Hydrochloride, NCI Thesaurus)
To assure that adequate concentrations of levodopa reach the central nervous system, it is administered with carbidopa, a decarboxylase inhibitor that does not cross the blood-brain barrier, thereby diminishing the decarboxylation and inactivation of levodopa in peripheral tissues and increasing the delivery of dopamine to the CNS.
(Levodopa, NCI Thesaurus)
You were, once, and able to eat me, as you were pleased to phrase it; but there has been a diminishing, and I am now able to eat you.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
And yet here you are, at the top of your life, where diminishing and dying begin, living an obscure and sordid existence, hunting sea animals for the satisfaction of woman’s vanity and love of decoration, revelling in a piggishness, to use your own words, which is anything and everything except splendid.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
