atrophy

Word family

Related topics: Illness & disability, Biology

at·ro·phy /ˈætrəfi/ verb (atrophied, atrophying, atrophies) [intransitiveI, transitiveT]

MIif a part of the body atrophies or is atrophied, it becomes weak because of lack of use or lack of blood （使）〔身体部位〕萎缩，（使）衰退

therapy to prevent the leg muscles from atrophying

防止腿部肌肉萎缩的疗法

—atrophy noun [uncountableU]

Examples from the Corpus

atrophy• In the end, in the final few days, the Labour campaign atrophied.• Indeed, in most we find it's atrophied.• Something in her that had, at first, revolted in anger and frustration at her own helplessness, now shrivelled and atrophied.• The muscles in her eyes have not atrophied.• His muscles had atrophied after the surgery.• Whatever character or vision he might have had atrophied along the way.• What had begun with good will was atrophying for the want of language to nourish it.• A gregarious single woman in her mid-thirties, she came to me feeling atrophied in her position with a major insurance company.• The skills needed are mostly those which our schooling found useless and it has atrophied them without irreparably damaging them.

Origin atrophy