Diminish vs Straiten - What's the difference?
diminish | straiten |
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= To become smaller.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken.
* Robynson (More's Utopia)
* Bible, Ezekiel xxix. 15
* Milton
To taper.
To disappear gradually.
To take away; to subtract.
* Bible, Deuteronomy iv. 2
(music) To reduce a perfect or minor interval by a semitone.
To make strait; to narrow or confine to a smaller space.
(senseid) To restrict or diminish, especially financially.
* 1662 , , Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 67:
As verbs the difference between diminish and straiten
is that diminish is to make smaller while straiten is .diminish
English
Verb
(es)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.}}
Old soldiers?, passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.
- This doth nothing diminish their opinion.
- I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
- O thou at whose sight all the stars / Hide their diminished heads.
- Neither shall ye diminish aught from it.
Derived terms
* law of diminishing returnsstraiten
English
Verb
(en verb)- The channel straitened the river through the town, made it flow faster, and caused more flooding upstream.
- "And the reason why Birds'' are ''Oviparous'' and ''lay Eggs , but do not bring forth their yong alive, is, because there might be more plenty of them also, and that neither the Birds of prey, the Serpent nor the Fowler, should streighten their generations too much."
- Rising costs put those on fixed incomes in straitened circumstances.