diminish

Word family

di·min·ish /dəˈmɪnɪʃ/ AWL verb

1 [intransitiveI, transitiveT]REDUCE to become or make something become smaller or less （使）减少，（使）减小 SYN reduce

The party’s share of the electorate has diminished steadily.

支持这个政党的选民比例持续下降。

These drugs diminish blood flow to the brain.

这些药物会减少流向脑部的血液量。

► see thesaurus at decrease

2 [transitiveT]IMPORTANT to deliberately make someone or something appear less important or valuable than they really are 削弱，贬低〔重要性或价值〕

Don’t let him diminish your achievements.

别让他贬低你的成就。

But that’s not to diminish the importance of his discoveries.

不过，这也不是要贬低他的发现的重要性。

3. diminishing returns GOOD ENOUGHwhen the profits or advantages you are getting from something stop increasing in relation to the effort you are making 收益递减，报酬递减

Examples from the Corpus

diminishing returns• Technologies that helped rescue developing countries from famine in the 1970s have reached the point of diminishing returns.• The problem with chocolates is that they operate on a loss curve of massively diminishing returns.• One was the idea of diminishing returns, applied in this case to income or wealth.• A law of diminishing returns applies to seed but not to pollen.• It is a process of diminishing returns, as Arthur Holmes showed mathematically nearly 30 years ago.• But it doesn't take a crystal ball to figure out the diminishing returns involved in planning programmes around such disposable performers.• They have created new forms of entertainment rather than providing variations on old themes that inevitably have diminishing returns over time.• For all of us there is also the law of diminishing returns that goes to work with each successive bite.

Examples from the Corpus

diminish• The time Foreman spent with his children gradually diminished.• With time, such resistance will doubtless diminish.• Then business diminished, and the partners persuaded Stratford to live off his Prescott estate in Gloucestershire.• Tate said the fences threaten to diminish property values in the neighborhood.• It will diminish rapidly with the distance in relatedness between individuals.• One was the idea of diminishing returns, applied in this case to income or wealth.• When the food has gone, its appeal diminishes, the dance stops, the crowd disperses and a new hunt begins.• "I'm not going to diminish the fact that I was upset, " McMahon said.• Steady rates would diminish the risk that ever-more homeowners will refinance the mortgages underlying the bonds.

Origin diminish

(1400-1500) diminue ((14-16 centuries)), from Old French diminuer, from Latin minuere “to make less”

di·min·ish verb

Chinese

Syllable

Corpus