Definition of "decrescendo" [de•cres•cen•do]

• With gradually diminishing force or loudness. Used chiefly as a direction. (adverb)
• A gradual decrease in force or loudness. (noun)
• A decrescendo passage. (noun)

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.

• "The scene, she explains is a decrescendo, the denouement of everything that has happened before it; the build up and heyday of Rome; these women becoming trophy brides, the beautiful houses, clothes and hairdos - and it all falls apart."
• "Freedom feeds fillip and flames of frenzy in a few freak cases, but if it reaches a more feverish frequency, somebody ought to remind those folks to tone down their rhetorical crescendo to a decrescendo level."
• "My husband says our name for each other over and over, in a slow decrescendo."