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.

Verb

(incurr)

To bring upon oneself or expose oneself to, especially something inconvenient, harmful, or onerous; to become liable or subject to.

* 1891 , Henry Graham Dakyns (translator), The works of Xenophon , ",

[T]he master in his wrath may easily incur worse evil himself than he inflicts—[...]

* 1910 , ,

And here it is to be noted that hatred is incurred as well on account of good actions as of bad;

(chiefly, legal) To render somebody liable or subject to.

* 1861 , ,

The least neglect of duty will incur [...] the penalty of thirty-nine well laid on in the morning.

(obsolete) To enter or pass into.

(obsolete) To fall within a period or scope; to occur; to run into danger.

To render liable or subject to; to occasion.

* Chapman

Lest you incur me much more damage in my fame than you have done me pleasure in preserving my life.