lessen
/ˈlɛsən/ verb B1- To make less; to diminish; to reduce. · a. 1686, Benjamin Calamy, a sermon Charity […] shall lessen his punishment.
- To become less.
He/she/it lessens · Past lessened · Past participle lessened · -ing form lessening
Verb forms
- Base form
- lessen
- He/she/it
- lessens
- Past
- lessened
- Past participle
- lessened
- -ing form
- lessening
From the library
One day he met a friend, a Fuller, and entreated him to come and live with him, saying that they should be far better neighbors and that their housekeeping expenses would be lessened.
“That’s the reason they’re called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked: “because they lessen from day to day.”
“Yes, he has a wife, who through everything has behaved like an angel; he has a daughter, who was about to marry the man she loved, but whose family now will not allow him to wed the daughter of a ruined man; he has, besides, a son, a lieutenant in the army; and, as you may suppose, all this, instead of lessening, only augments his sorrows.
Neither had anything occurred in the intelligence of their Lambton friends that could materially lessen its weight.
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