1. (n.) Reduction in size, quantity, or degree; the act of diminishing, or of making or becoming less; state of being diminished; -- opposed to augmentation or increase.
2. (n.) The act of lessening dignity or consideration, or the state of being deprived of dignity; a lowering in estimation; degradation; abasement.
3. (n.) Omission, inaccuracy, or defect in a record.
4. (n.) In counterpoint, the imitation of, or reply to, a subject, in notes of half the length or value of those the subject itself.
Thesaurus Entries
abatement, abridgment, allayment, alleviation, analgesia, anesthesia, anesthetizing, appeasement, assuagement, attenuation, attrition, blunting, calming, concavity, contraction, curtailment, cut, cutting, dampening, damping, de-escalation, deadening, debasement, decrease, decrement, decrescence, deduction, deflation, degradation, demotion, demulsion, depletion, depreciation, depression, derogation, descent, detraction, detrusion, diminishment, dip, disparagement, ducking, dulcification, dulling, dying, dying off, ease, easement, easing, extenuation, extraction, fade-out, falling-off, hauling down, hollowness, hushing, impairment, languishment, leniency, lessening, letdown, letup, lightening, loosening, lowering, lulling, miniaturization, mitigation, modulation, mollification, numbing, pacification, palliation, quietening, quieting, reduction, relaxation, relief, remedy, remission, retraction, retrenchment, sagging, salving, scaling down, shortening, shrinkage, simplicity, sinking, slackening, softening, soothing, subduement, submergence, subtraction, tempering, thrusting under, tranquilization, truncation, weakening
