attenuated
AdjectiveWordNet 3.0
Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)
Attenuate \At*ten"u*ate\, Attenuated \At*ten"u*a`ted\, a. [L. attenuatus, p. p.]
1.Made thin or slender. [1913 Webster]
2.Made thin or less viscid; rarefied. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
3.To lessen the amount, force, or value of; to make less complex; to weaken. [1913 Webster]
To undersell our rivals . . . has led the manufacturer to . . . attenuate his processes, in the allotment of tasks, to an extreme point.— I. Taylor.[1913 Webster]
We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagerness.— Sir F. Palgrave.[1913 Webster]
decreased \decreased\ adj. made less in size or amount or degree. Opposite of increased. [Narrower terms: attenuate, attenuated, faded, weakened; belittled, diminished, small; cut, cut-rate; diminished, lessened; minimized; remittent; attenuated]
Syn: reduced. [WordNet 1.5]