Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word lessen. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word lessen, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say lessen in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word lessen you have here. The definition of the word lessen will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition oflessen, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
December 6, 1709, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preach'd before the sons of the clergy at their anniversary-meeting in the Church of St. Paul
St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.
1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 44:
The thin glass that makes mirror tiles light in weight also tends to lessen their reflective quality.
2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients'”, in Guardian:
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.
Ober closed his encomium with the serious statement that “Lessen he could marry Miss Jennie he would be a bachelor the balance of his life," to which the drayman replied that " If Oi were Miss Janie Oi'd black yer oi the minute ye thought of such a thing. The oidee."
2011, Caroline Miller, Lamb in His Bosom, page 107:
She was fine-looking; he couldn't find a fault with her 'lessen he made it up.