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View synonyms for lessen

lessen

[ les-uhn ]

verb (used without object)

  1. to become less.


verb (used with object)

  1. to make less; reduce.
  2. Archaic. to represent as less; depreciate; disparage.

lessen

/ ˈlɛsən /

verb

  1. to make or become less
  2. tr to make little of
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Other Words From

  • un·lessened adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of lessen1

First recorded in 1300–50; late Middle English lessenen, lasnen; equivalent to less + -en 1
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Example Sentences

The company had also said it would plant grasses that better hold in place the sandy riverbank and add a layer of rocks to lessen erosion.

Doing small things like this can help to lessen some of the friction that comes along with asking others to engage with your posts.

Playing fantasy sports helped lessen the sting of not having his own startup.

Minnesota, by contrast, lets in certain family members, clad in personal protective gear, for up to three hours a day to monitor care and lessen loneliness.

Among 86 infected women, the drug helped lessen the amount of extra oxygen needed in 96 percent of pregnant women and 89 percent of women who had newly given birth.

Cooperating with Assad is also the only feasible way, at present, to lessen the humanitarian nightmare in Syria.

We ask that you lessen her pain and therefore lessen the pain of all humanity.

Each 6000kg sculpture is lowered to the seabed where it is drilled into the substrate to lessen the effects of turbulent weather.

But getting cyclists to don a hard-shelled helmet, which can lessen the risks of serious injury, has been a global challenge.

The company hopes the change will lessen the weight load for not only the pilots, but the planes.

Alone the supreme Self in him looked calmly on, seeming to lessen the part that trembled and knew fear.

The recognition did not lessen the reality, the poignancy of the revelation by any suggestion or promise of instability.

The wind now began to lessen; and, for fear of being becalmed, I was anxious to get an offing.

If fortune frowns he may lessen his crop but never his attachment for the plant.

The crop supplied more tobacco than was needed, but no one man would cease to plant it, or lessen his crop for the general good.

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lesseeLesseps