decrease

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Diminution

Nouns

1. (decrease in amount) decrease, diminution; lessening, subtraction (see deduction); reduction, abatement; shrinking, contraction, extenuation; cut back, discount. See shortness.

2. (decrease in intensity) subsidence, wane, ebb, decline; scaling down, deescalation; downsizing; decrement, reflux, depreciation, deflation; deceleration, slowdown; deterioration; mitigation (see moderation). Informal, letup.

Verbs

1. decrease, diminish, lessen, shrink; drop, fall, or tail off; fall away, wane, ebb; descend, subside, let up; melt, die, or fade away; retire into the shade, fall to a low ebb, die down; run low, out, dry, or short, wear away; dwindle, slacken, peter out.

2. abate, bate; discount, depreciate, lower; attenuate, extenuate, mitigate, moderate; cut to the bone; cut back, down, or into; curtail, reduce; step, turn, or scale down, roll back, take in; demote, downgrade; downscale, downsize.

Adjectives — unincreased, decreased, decreasing, short, diminishing, waning, wasting away, wearing out, reduced, lessening, ebbing, dwindling, petering out, fading, disappearing, vanishing, falling off; dwarfish.

Adverbs — on the wane, on the decrease, smaller and smaller, less and less.

Antonyms, see increase.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. shrinkage, lessening, abatement; see contraction 1 , discount , drop 2 , reduction 1 .

• on the decrease,

Syn. decreasing, declining, waning; see lessening .

v.

1. [To grow less]

Syn. lessen, diminish, decline, abate, modify, wane, deteriorate, degenerate, dwindle, be consumed, sink, settle, lighten, slacken, ebb, lower, melt away, moderate, subside, shrink, contract, recede, shrivel up, depreciate, soften, quiet, narrow down, droop, waste, fade, fade away, run low, weaken, crumble, let up, dry up, slow down, calm down, burn away, burn down, smooth out, die away, die down, lose its edge, wither away, decay, drop off, taper off, tail off, devaluate, evaporate, fall down, fall away, fall off, slack off, wear off, wear away, wear out, wear down, wind down, rev down*, slump*; see also contract 1 .

Ant. grow*, increase, multiply.

2. [To make less]

Syn. reduce, lessen, lower, check, curb, restrain, quell, tame, mollify, dampen, compose, hush, still, palliate, sober, pacify, allay, blunt, qualify, tranquilize, curtail, subtract, render less, abridge, abbreviate, downsize, condense, shorten, minimize, diminish, slash, attenuate, dilute, retrench, shave, pare, prune, truncate, deplete, abate, mitigate, modify, make brief, digest, limit, level, deflate, compress, contract, strip, thin, bleed, make smaller, devaluate, devalue, clip, abstract, summarize, epitomize, sum up, lighten, trim, rake off, level off, take from, take off, roll back, hold down, mark down, scale down, boil down, let up, cut off, cut down, cut short, cut back, strike off, deduct, knock off*; see also compress , contract 2 .

Ant. increase*, expand, augment.

Syn.- decrease and dwindle suggest a growing gradually smaller in bulk, size, volume, or number, but dwindle emphasizes a marked wasting away to the point of disappearance [ his hopes decreased as his fortune dwindled away to nothing ] ; lessen is equivalent to decrease , except that it does not imply any particular rate of decline [ his influence lessened overnight ] ; diminish emphasizes subtraction from the whole by some external agent [ disease had diminished their ranks ] ; reduce implies a lowering, or bringing down [ to reduce prices ]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus)

I

n.

lessening, lowering, shrinkage, reduction, decline, weakening, lightening, contraction, depreciation, drop.

ANT.: increase, growth, expansion

II

v.

lessen, diminish, lower, shrink, reduce, decline, weaken, lighten, contract, depreciate, dwindle, plummet, drop, sink.

ANT.: increase, grow, expand, burgeon

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I verb To grow or cause to grow gradually less: abate, diminish, drain, dwindle, ebb, lessen, let up, peter (out), rebate, reduce, tail away (or off), taper (off). See INCREASE. II noun The act or process of decreasing: abatement, curtailment, cut, cutback, decrement, diminishment, diminution, drain, reduction, slash, slowdown, taper. See INCREASE.