decrease
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
decrease
▶verb /dɪˈkriːs/ make or become smaller or fewer in size, amount, intensity, or degree. ▶noun /ˈdiːkriːs/ an instance of decreasing.
■ the action of decreasing.
– derivatives
decreasing adjective,
decreasingly adverb.
decreasing adjective,
decreasingly adverb.
– origin ME: from OFr. decreis (n.), decreistre (v.), based on L. decrescere, from de- ‘down’ + crescere ‘grow’.
'decrease' also found in these Oxford entries:
baby bust
- contract
- decline
- decrement
- decrescent
- decry
- diminuendo
- Doppler effect
- drop-off
- dry
- ease
- ebb
- elastic
- fade
- fall
- fall-off
- half-life
- inversion
- Joule–Thomson effect
- kin selection
- lose
- photonegative
- plummet
- rallentando
- ramp
- retrograde
- sink
- slack
- spike
- spiral
- step
- tumble
- wane
