You searched for: “diminish”
diminish (verb), diminishes; diminished; diminishing
1. To make something smaller or less important, or to become smaller or less important; to reduce in bulk or amount; to lessen; opposed to augment or increase.
2. To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken.
3. To contract a perfect or minor musical interval by one semitone.
4. To take away; to subtract; to decrease, lessen, abate, reduce, contract, curtail, impair, degrade.
5. To appear smaller, or to make something appear smaller.
This entry is located in the following units: dis-, di-, dif- (page 4) -ish (page 1) mini-, minor-, minut-, minu-, min- (page 2)
diminish, minimize
diminish (di MIN ish) (verb)
To make less or small; for example, authority or distance: The small stature of the manager seemed to diminish her authority.

The trains went quickly across the country, seeming to diminish the size of the territory by their speed.

minimize (MIN uh mighz") (verb)
To disparage or to reduce to the smallest possible size: Chuck's radical speech attempted to minimize the importance of the celebration.

Elvira's efforts to minimize the importance of the discovery served only to diminish her stature as a government official.

This entry is located in the following unit: Confusing Words Clarified: Group D; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. + (page 5)
Units related to: “diminish”
deterior-, deteriorat-
(Latin: to make worse, to become worse; lower, inferior; unfavorable; decline, declining; diminish, diminishing)
mini-, minor-, minut-, minu-, min-
(Latin: small, little, less; decline, decrease, diminish; become less, reduce, becoming smaller or shorter)
pejor-
(Latin: worse; diminish, weaken; inferior in quality or condition)
Vocabulary: Limited Knowledge Can Diminish Intelligence
(everyone needs to constantly increase his or her word knowledge)