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Droop vs Lessen - What's the difference?

droop | lessen | Related terms |

In intransitive terms the difference between droop and lessen

is that droop is to lose all enthusiasm or happiness while lessen is to become less.

In transitive terms the difference between droop and lessen

is that droop is to allow to droop or sink while lessen is to make less; to diminish; to reduce.

As a noun droop

is something which is limp or sagging.

droop

English

(wikipedia droop)

Verb

(en verb)
  • (lb) To sink or hang downward; to sag.
  • *
  • Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth.
  • * (Sylvester Stallone) (1946-)
  • I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop , the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.
  • (lb) To slowly become limp; to bend gradually.
  • (lb) To lose all enthusiasm or happiness.
  • * (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
  • I saw him ten days before he died, and observed he began very much to droop and languish.
  • * (Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
  • I'll animate the soldier's drooping courage.
  • (lb) To allow to droop or sink.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • Like to a withered vine / That droops his sapless branches to the ground.
  • To proceed downward, or toward a close; to decline.
  • * (1809-1892)
  • when day drooped

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • something which is limp or sagging;
  • a condition or posture of drooping
  • He walked with a discouraged droop .

    Derived terms

    * brewer's droop ----

    lessen

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make less; to diminish; to reduce.
  • * Calamy
  • Charity shall lessen his punishment.
  • * Atterbury
  • St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=December 16 , author=Denis Campbell , title=Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients' , work=Guardian citation , page= , passage=Many hospitals have not taken simple steps to lessen the distress and confusion which dementia sufferers' often feel on being somewhere so unfamiliar – such as making signs large and easy to read, using colour schemes to help patients find their way around unfamiliar wards and not putting family mementoes such as photographs nearby.}}
  • To become less.
  • Anagrams

    * * English ergative verbs ----