diminish
To become less, or to make something less in size, amount, importance, or strength.
To (cause something to) become smaller in size, amount, importance, or strength.
To say or do something that makes a person or thing seem less important, less good, or less valuable.
To make someone or something seem less important, less impressive, or less valuable.
In music, to make the distance between two notes smaller by a half step, or to make a diminished chord.
In music theory, to make an interval smaller by a semitone, or to form a diminished chord based on such an interval.
- Base: diminish
- 3rd Person Singular: diminishes
- Present Participle: diminishing
- Past: diminished
diminished responsibility
1reduced legal blame due to mind
In law, a condition where a person is judged less responsible for a crime because their mind was not fully normal when it happened.
- The defendant’s lawyers argued that he was suffering from a mental illness and should be granted diminished responsibility.
- The court accepted a plea of diminished responsibility, and the charge was reduced from murder to manslaughter.
- Expert witnesses were called to discuss whether her depression amounted to diminished responsibility.
diminishing returns
1extra effort gives smaller extra results
A situation where, after a certain point, doing more of something gives you smaller and smaller extra benefits.
- If you study all night, you quickly reach a point of diminishing returns where you stop learning much.
- The company invested more in advertising but began to see diminishing returns on each new campaign.
- After three hours at the gym, he was clearly hitting diminishing returns and decided to go home.