attenuate

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • adj attenuate reduced in strength "the faded tones of an old recording"
    • v attenuate become weaker, in strength, value, or magnitude
    • v attenuate weaken the consistency of (a chemical substance)
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • Attenuate Made thin or less viscid; rarefied.
    • Attenuate Made thin or slender.
    • v. i Attenuate To become thin, slender, or fine; to grow less; to lessen. "The attention attenuates as its sphere contracts."
    • Attenuate To lessen the amount, force, or value of; to make less complex; to weaken. "To undersell our rivals . . . has led the manufacturer to . . . attenuate his processes, in the allotment of tasks, to an extreme point.""We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagerness."
    • Attenuate To make thin or less consistent; to render less viscid or dense; to rarefy. Specifically: To subtilize, as the humors of the body, or to break them into finer parts.
    • Attenuate To make thin or slender, as by mechanical or chemical action upon inanimate objects, or by the effects of starvation, disease, etc., upon living bodies.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • attenuate To make thin or slender; reduce in thickness; wear or draw down: as, an attenuated thread or wire.
    • attenuate To reduce by comminution or attrition; make small or fine: as, extremely attenuated particles of dust or flour.
    • attenuate To make thin or rare; reduce in density; increase the fluidity or rarity of.
    • attenuate To lessen in complexity or intensity; reduce in strength or energy; simplify; weaken: as, the attenuated remedies of the homeopathists.
    • attenuate Figuratively, to weaken or reduce in force, effect, or value; render meager or jejune; fine down.
    • attenuate To lessen; diminish: said of number. Howell.
    • attenuate To become thin, slender, or fine; diminish; lessen.
    • attenuate In brewing and distilling, to undergo the process of attenuation. See attenuation, 4.
    • attenuate Slender; thin.
    • attenuate In botany, tapering gradually to a narrow extremity.
    • attenuate Of thin consistency; dilute; rarefied.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • v.t Attenuate at-ten′ū-āt to make thin or lean: to break down into finer parts: to reduce in density: reduce in strength or value, simplify
    • v.i Attenuate to become thin or fine: to grow less
    • adjs Attenuate made thin or slender: dilute, rarefied:—n. Attenuā′tion, process of making slender: reduction of intensity, density, or force: specially in homeopathy, the reduction of the active principles of medicines to minute doses
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Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
L. attenuatus, p. p. of attenuare,; ad, + tenuare, to make thin, tenuis, thin. See Thin
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
L. attenuāre, -ātum—ad, to, tenuis, thin.

Usage

In literature:

The careless style of costume generally adopted attenuated differences of social position.
"Sentimental Education, Volume II" by Gustave Flaubert
Not even the attenuated rights which law and custom gave the free woman.
"The Strange Adventures of Mr. Middleton" by Wardon Allan Curtis
Of the two, Le Gros appeared the less attenuated.
"The Ocean Waifs" by Mayne Reid
He was tall and very attenuated, clothed wholly in black.
"In Doublet and Hose" by Lucy Foster Madison
Out of his pocket he drew what appeared to be an attenuated ham sandwich.
"The Gay Rebellion" by Robert W. Chambers
The inconceivable attenuation of the gaseous stuff composing it was virtually demonstrated by Mr.
"A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century" by Agnes M. (Agnes Mary) Clerke
Pasteur hastened to apply his discovery of the attenuation of the virus of chicken cholera to the virus of splenic fever.
"Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6 of 8" by Various
He was pale and attenuated, and so weak that he had several fainting spells.
"The Third Degree" by Charles Klein and Arthur Hornblow
The result, though somewhat attenuated, was recognisably a cigarette.
"Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, November 11, 1914" by Various
He was a tall, thin, attenuated man.
"The Silver Maple" by Marian Keith
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In poetry:

Or fell disease, in patience borne,
Attenuates the frame
Till the meek sufferer, wan and worn,
Of energy and beauty shorn,
Death's sweet release would claim.
"Thy Will Be Done" by Hattie Howard

In news:

Revision of F1292 - 09Standard Specification for Impact Attenuation of Surfacing Materials within the Use Zone of Playground Equipment.
astm.org
ASTM F1292-09 Standard Specification for Impact Attenuation of Surfacing Materials Within the Use Zone of Playground Equipment.
astm.org
Compact Filtered Inlet Boasts Maximum Attenuation .
mdtmag.com
Omega Optical's new UV-Gain Flattening Filter (XUVGFF) is designed to achieve OD 5 average attenuation at the red and NIR wavelengths while transmitting nearly 50% of the prominent UV A, B, and C regions.
biotechniques.com
Micro- and Macro-Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging.
s-a-s.org
You, your equipment and your processes have a number of cutting-edge noise attenuation solutions to thank for it.
mt-online.com
But my relationship with the widow is attenuated.
nytimes.com
Both headphones have over-the-ear, closed-back designs that deliver attenuation of ambient noise.
broadcastengineering.com
These two types of clocks attenuate jitter and wander, maintain operation in hold-over mode, and provide synchronization outputs to all Central Office network elements.
ecnmag.com
Beta-blockers: These drugs can attenuate the hypoglycemic effects of sulfonylureas.
supermarketnews.com
Before a GPS satellite signal reaches the ground, it must first pass through ionospheric gases that bend, reflect and attenuate radio waves.
astronomy.com
To keep the RF input signals experienced by low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) and receiver frontend components to safe levels, a new limiter is designed to attenuate signals above a specific threshold.
mwrf.com
In this test method, a specimen is burned in a sealed chamber so that smoke density can be calculated by measuring light attenuation.
astm.org
This specification establishes requirements for the dimensions and minimum impact attenuation performance of pole vault box collars.
astm.org
Psychosis Risk (AKA attenuated psychotic symptoms disorder) has always had 3 strikes against it.
psychiatrictimes.com
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In science:

The necessity of the renormalization of the viscosity means that the rough surface slows the flow down and changes the attenuation.
Surface Roughness and Effective Stick-Slip Motion
In this Section we address the question whether it is possible to extract information on the properties of the rough surface from the frequency dependence of attenuation of transverse oscillations.
Surface Roughness and Effective Stick-Slip Motion
The physical reason is obvious: large-scale attenuation processes on the scale of decay length δ are not very sensitive to the details of surface inhomogeneities with the size R ≪ δ .
Surface Roughness and Effective Stick-Slip Motion
In experiment, the position of this maximum on the frequency dependence of the attenuation can become a direct measurement of the correlation radius (size) of the surface inhomogeneities R.
Surface Roughness and Effective Stick-Slip Motion
The MiniPlug operates by integrating the signal over several fibers within a distance determined by the effective attenuation length of the liquid scintillator, which depends on the number of reflections.
The CDF MiniPlug Calorimeters
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