Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To grow or cause to grow gradually less or smaller, as in number, amount, or intensity.
- n. The act or process of decreasing.
- n. The amount by which something decreases.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To become less; lessen; be diminished gradually in extent, bulk, quantity, or amount, or in strength, influence, or excellence: as, the days decrease in length from June to December.
- To make less; lessen; make smaller in dimensions, amount, quality, excellence, etc.; reduce gradually or by small deductions.
- n. A becoming less; diminution; wane (as applied to the moon); decay: as, a rapid decrease of revenue or of strength.
- n. The amount by which something is lessened; extent of loss or decrement: as, a great decrease in production or of income.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive Of a quantity, to become smaller.
- v. transitive To make (a quantity) smaller.
- n. An amount by which a quantity is decreased.
- n. knitting A reduction in the number of stitches, usually accomplished by suspending the stitch to be decreased from another existing stitch or by knitting it together with another stitch. See Decrease (knitting).
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To grow less, -- opposed to
increase ; to be diminished gradually, in size, degree, number, duration, etc., or in strength, quality, or excellence. - v. To cause to grow less; to diminish gradually.
- n. A becoming less; gradual diminution; decay.
- n. The wane of the moon.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the act of decreasing or reducing something
- v. decrease in size, extent, or range
- v. make smaller
- n. the amount by which something decreases
- n. a change downward
- n. a process of becoming smaller or shorter
Etymologies
- From Old French descreistre (French: décroître), from Latin decrescere. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English decresen, from Old French decreistre, decreiss-, from Latin dēcrēscere : dē-, de- + crēscere, to grow; see ker-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“When you're in school now, the overreaction to this and that and the strictness and what they call the decrease, I'm calling the police.”
“April 2nd, 2010 9: 39 am ET yeah, an increase and decrease is NO better than drastic losses during Duh Duh Duh-byas reign of error”
“Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has reduced antlerless permits by 51 percent from 2,882 to 1,400 during 2000-2004 and recently proposed 100 permits for 2006 – a 96 percent decrease from the 2,660 permits issued in 1995. any wonder hunters are getting totally miffed by the [apparent] lack of proper game management and wolves?”
“How do we know that the decrease is not the consequence of fewer females conceived in the 1980s when abortion was at its peak?”
“The unemployment rate for workers with unemployment insurance for the week ended Sept. 18 was 3.5%, a 0.1 percentage point decrease from the prior week's revised rate of 3.6%.”
“Over the last three months, which ended in September, that average plummeted to about 33,000 per month, a 41 percent decrease from the year's second quarter, according to data from Treasury.”
“France has a lower level of inequality than most of the OECD countries and is one of only 5 - out of 30 OECD countries -- that saw inequality decrease from the mid-80s to the mid-2000s.”
The Huffington Post: Mark Weisbrot: French Protesters Have It Right: No Need to Raise Retirement Age
“Bridget Terry Long compares this approach with a voucher program. up to 24 percent of first-year students would no longer choose a public, four-year school if given the money as a voucher that could be applied to any in-state college (the decrease is smaller if the voucher were twice as large for four-year colleges).”
State Universities vs. Vouchers, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“I was able to relocate the Crucial Stitch while I was still in decrease mode, but when the same thing happened in the increase section, I was flummoxed.”
“I learned from Margaret Stove herself that the stitch the needle enters first, for any decrease, is the one that winds up on top.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘decrease’.
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BUDG - general terms
Budgetese - not a sexy topic but a very comprehensive list of words and collocations used in EU circles. Budgeting experts please comment and expand.
heading, across-the-board ..., emergency reserve, frontload, mopping-up, performance reserve, positive margin, negative margin, public finances, structural operat..., administrative ex..., management of EU ... and 657 more...
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CONT - general terms
additionality, audit trail, accounting standards, auditing standards, general audit obj..., a posteriori audit, a priori audit, above board, acceptable error ..., access rights, accountability, accountable entities and 1283 more...
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Phonestheme: CR- (or KR-)
Grateful credit to pterodactyl and http://reocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9783/phond1.html.
crook, crack, crane, cremains, cranberries, crimp, crow, crunch, crash, creak, croak, cronk and 94 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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de-
away from; off; down; entirely; undo; reverse
detrain, decline, defunct, defrost, debility, detract, deduce, deduct, delineate, defuse, debunk, debase and 7 more...
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Knitting
Add anything you like--I'm sure we can stitch it all together somehow.
knit, knitting, yarn, K, P, YO, SSK, loop, cast on, stockinette, purl, knit two together and 54 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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decresc-
wane; lessen
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Loss
Words related to loss.
deprivation, privation, destitution, perdition, deperdition, amission, void, decrement, decrease, diminution, dispossession
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Reduction
Words related to reduction.
diminution, diminishment, defalcation, abatement, decrement, decrease, atrophy
Tweets
Looking for tweets for decrease.
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