Retrench vs Diminish - What's the difference?
retrench | diminish | Synonyms |
To cut down or reduce.
* Denham
To abridge; to curtail.
* Milton
To confine; to limit; to restrict.
* I. Taylor
To furnish with a retrenchment (defensive work within a fortification).
To take up a new defensive position.
*2012 , The Economist,
To dig or redig a trench where one already was.
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.
Retrench is a synonym of diminish.
As verbs the difference between retrench and diminish
is that retrench is to cut down or reduce or retrench can be to dig or redig a trench where one already was while diminish is to make smaller.retrench
English
Etymology 1
(etyl) retrenchier, (etyl) retrancher; see (etyl) , and English trench.Verb
(es)- Thy exuberant parts retrench .
- But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched .
- (Addison)
- These figures, ought they then to receive a retrenched interpretation?
- to retrench bastions
- We must retrench and try to hold on long enough for products in development to reach the market or we will be out of business.
Private Equity: Keep Calm and Carry On
- International firms could decide it is not cost-effective to keep open their other European offices and retrench to London.
Etymology 2
Verb
(es)Anagrams
*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.