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Diminish vs Damage - What's the difference?

diminish | damage |

As verbs the difference between diminish and damage

is that diminish is to make smaller while damage is to impair the soundness, goodness, or value of; to harm or cause destruction.

As a noun damage is

injury or harm; the condition or measure of something not being intact.

diminish

English

Verb

(es)
  • To make smaller.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-12-14
    • , author=Simon Jenkins, authorlink=Simon Jenkins, volume=188, issue=2, page=23 , date=2012-12-21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys , passage=The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.}}
  • To become smaller.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.
  • To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
    • This doth nothing diminish their opinion.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel xxix. 15
    • I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
  • * Milton
    • O thou at whose sight all the stars / Hide their diminished heads.
  • To taper.
  • To disappear gradually.
  • To take away; to subtract.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy iv. 2
    • Neither shall ye diminish aught from it.
  • (music) To reduce a perfect or minor interval by a semitone.

    • Derived terms

    * law of diminishing returns

    damage

    English

    (wikipedia damage)

    Noun

  • Injury or harm; the condition or measure of something not being intact.
    • The storm did a lot of damage to the area.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • Great errors and absurdities many commit for want of a friend to tell them of them, to the great damage both of their fame and fortune.
  • (slang) Cost or expense.
    • "What's the damage ?" he asked the waiter.

    Verb

    (damag)
  • To impair the soundness, goodness, or value of; to harm or cause destruction.
    • Be careful not to damage any of the fragile items while unpacking them.
  • * Clarendon
    • He came up to the English admiral and gave him a broadside, with which he killed many of his men and damaged the ship.