Definition of "attenuate" []

• To make slender, fine, or small: The drought attenuated the river to a narrow channel. (verb-transitive)
• To reduce in force, value, amount, or degree; weaken: Medicine attenuated the fever's effect. (verb-transitive)
• To lessen the density of; rarefy. (verb-transitive)
• Biology To make (bacteria or viruses) less virulent. (verb-transitive)
• Electronics To reduce (the amplitude of an electrical signal) with little or no distortion. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This being correctly guessed to represent "attenuate" (at ten you ate), the other side goes from the room and the previous performers become the audience."
• "Although the United States "has done as good a job as it could have" in trying to make the ANA mirror the broader society, Mason said, it can only "attenuate" rather than prevent such a war in the future, even with a larger troop presence."
• "Reforming divorce laws likely would attenuate the divorce rate as well as the risks inherent to later births with new partners."