Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A rubbing away or wearing down by friction.
- n. A gradual diminution in number or strength because of constant stress.
- n. A gradual, natural reduction in membership or personnel, as through retirement, resignation, or death.
- n. Repentance for sin motivated by fear of punishment rather than by love of God.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The rubbing of one thing against another; mutual friction: as, the abrasion of coins by attrition.
- n. The act of wearing away by rubbing; the state of being worn down or smoothed by friction; abrasion.
- n. In theology, imperfect contrition or repentance, with real detestation of sin, and a true purpose of amendment, arising from those supernatural motives of faith which are lower than charity, or the true love of God for his own infinite perfections. Such motives are a love of justice for its own sake, the intrinsic shamefulness of sin, the fear of divine punishment, etc. Attrition remits sin only when complemented by the grace conferred through sacramental absolution. See
contrition .
Wiktionary
- n. wearing or grinding down by friction
- n. the gradual reduction in a tangible or intangible resource due to causes that are passive and do not involve productive use of the resource.
- n. A gradual, natural reduction in membership or personnel, as through retirement, resignation, or death
- n. sciences The loss of participants during an experiment
- n. theology Imperfect contrition or remorse
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of rubbing together; friction; the act of wearing by friction, or by rubbing substances together; abrasion.
- n. The state of being worn.
- n. (Theol.) Grief for sin arising only from fear of punishment or feelings of shame. See Contrition.
WordNet 3.0
- n. sorrow for sin arising from fear of damnation
- n. a wearing down to weaken or destroy
- n. the wearing down of rock particles by friction due to water or wind or ice
- n. erosion by friction
- n. the act of rubbing together; wearing something down by friction
Etymologies
- From Latin attritio ("a rubbing against"), from the verb attritus, past participle of atterere ("to wear"), from ad- ("to, towards") + terere ("to rub"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English attricioun, regret, breaking, from Old French attrition, abrasion, from Late Latin attrītiō, attrītiōn-, act of rubbing against, from Latin attrītus, past participle of atterere, to rub against : ad-, against; see ad- + terere, to rub; see terə-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Almost all of the attrition is among students with very low grades.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Affirmative Action in Law Schools, Pt. 2
“For instance; that after the long course of a most lewd and flagitious life, a man may be reconciled to God, and have his sins forgiven at the last gasp, upon confession of them to the priest, with that imperfect degree of contrition for them, which they call attrition, together with the absolution of the priest.”
The Works of Dr. John Tillotson, Late Archbishop of Canterbury. Vol. 04.
“Leadership attrition is a major problem for any type of army.”
“Some of this attrition is due to financial factors indeed, but a majority of the attrition is due to other factors such as poor academic preparation.”
Taxes and Market Time, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“All the attrition is difficult to get a read on, particularly when one of the best players to come through McDermott's program, Wesley Johnson, is starring at Syracuse.”
“Perhaps more subtly considered the "JPII priest" attrition is simply a recent example of the perennial struggle for the celibate priest in his affectivity and relationships, in his heart and most especially in his spousal and paternal love.”
“Men and women have near-equal NIH funding success at all stages of their careers, which makes it very unlikely that female attrition is due to negative selection from NIH grant-funding decisions.”
“Cry ‚ Äôs of success when attrition is allowed to meet the sacrifice that year.”
“DVDs and viewer attrition is one thing, but already we see shows with cult followings that had virtually zero ratings (cough serenity cough).”
“I think the attrition is probably a good thing in that it has forced LOST to put a stopper as to when the end is going to be and can now focus on answering questions and getting us to the end.”
The Tail Section » Decoding the Lost Decline… A.K.A More free market research for ABC
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘attrition’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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a-, ad-
motion toward; addition to; nearness to
Note: can change formsadvance, admonish, admit, adjoin, ascribe, acclaim, affirm, aggrade, allege, announce, approve, arrive and 3 more...
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Forgettables
Words with meanings I just can't seem to remember, no matter how many times I look them up.
esoteric, allegorical, zeitgeist, ersatz, stalwart, orthogonal, offal, peripatetic, definiendum, panacea, gregarious, verticals and 4 more...
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to lessen
words to shorten, weaken, or lessen
attenuate, attrition, assuage, effete, truncate, curtail, nadir, severance, obviate, phthisis, eviscerate
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SAT words
tergiversate, cymotrichous, vigilance, wince, consternation, cower, neutralize, euphony, cacophony, misanthrope, bibliophile, kleptomania and 81 more...
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SAT Master Vocab List
Words I have come across that I don't know the meaning of!
rumination, contrition, extemporize, effusion, exult, vexed, sumptuous, punitive, brethren, harridan, macabre, acrid and 123 more...
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GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 more...
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GRE 3500
abase, abash, abate, aberrant, abeyance, abjure, ablution, abut, accede, accentuate, acerbity, acetic and 133 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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SAT vocab
abash, abate, abdicate, aberration, abhor, abject, abnegate, abortive, absolve, abstruse, accolade, accost and 175 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL A
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 172 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for attrition.
Noelle Knight "Bartenders at Fangtasia didn't tend to last long. Eric and Pam always tried to hire someone colorful--an exotic bartender drew in the human tourists who came by the busloads to take a walk on the wild side--and in this they were successful. But somehow the job had acquired a high attrition rate."-Dead as a Doornail, by Charlaine Harris May 18, 2011