▪ I. decrease, n.
(dɪˈkriːs, ˈdiːkriːs)
Forms: 4 decrees, 4–7 discrease, 5 decresse, 6– decrease.
[a. OF. decreis, descreis (later des-, de-crois, now décroît), verbal n. f. stem of de-, descreis-tre (de(s)creiss-ant) to decrease.]
The process of growing less; lessening, diminution, falling off, abatement; the condition which results from this. (Opposed to increase n.)
| 1383 Gower Conf. III. 154 That none honour fall in decrees [v.r. discrease]. 1488–9 Act 4 Hen. VII, c. 1 To decresse and destruccion of your lyvelode. 1555 Eden Decades 119 They see the seas by increase and decrease to flowe and reflowe. 1665 Pepys Diary 28 Nov., Soon as we know how the plague goes this week, which we hope will be a good decrease. 1674 Playford Skill Mus. i. vii. 24 Notes of Diminution or Decrease. 1742 Young Nt. Th. v. 717 While man is growing, life is in decrease. 1874 Green Short Hist. iv. §2. 168 The steady decrease in the number of the greater nobles. |
† b. spec. The wane of the moon. Obs.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §626 Such Fruits..you must gather..when the Moon is under the Earth, and in decrease. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 29 The same taken in the decrease of the moon..helpeth the fits of quartans. 1746 Hervey Medit. (1818) 266 The moon in her decrease prevents the dawn. |
▪ II. decrease, v.
(dɪˈkriːs)
Forms: α. 4–5 discrese, 5 discrease, -creace, dyscres, -crece, 6 discresse, dyscrease; β. 4–5 decreesse, 4–6 decrese, 5 -crece, -creace, 5–6 -cresse, 6 Sc. dicres, 6– decrease.
[f. OF. de-, descreiss-, ppl. stem of descreistre (later descroistre (Cotgr. 1611), now décroître) = Pr. descreisser, Cat. descrexer, Sp. descrecer, It. diˈscrescere, which took in Romanic the place of L. dēcrēscĕre, f. dē- down + crēscĕre to grow: see de- I. 6. Under the influence of the L., decreistre was an occasional variant in OF., and under the same influence, de-crese, found beside descrese in ME., eventually superseded it. An AngloFr. decresser, influenced by Eng. decrese or L. decrescere, is found in the Statutes of Hen. VI.]
1. intr. To grow less (in amount, importance, influence, etc.); to lessen, diminish, fall off, shrink, abate. (Opposed to increase v.)
| α 1393 Gower Conf. II. 189 Knowend how that the feith discreseth. a 1400 Cov. Myst. (1841) 224 Oure joy wylle sone dyscres. 1490 Caxton Eneydos Prol. 2 The mone..euer wauerynge, wexynge one season and waneth & dyscreaseth another season. 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 2545 Now ebbe, now flowe, nowe increase, nowe dyscrease. 1530 Palsgr. 518/2, I discresse, I growe lasse or dymynysshe. |
| β 1382 Wyclif Gen. viii. 5 The watres ȝeden and decreesseden [1388 decresiden] vnto the tenthe moneth. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) vi. 23 Þan begynnes Nilus to decreesse. 1483 Cath. Angl. 92 To Decrese (A. Decresse), decrescere. 1530 Palsgr. 509/1, I decrease, I waxe lesse, or vanysshe awaye. 1534 Tindale John iii. 30 He must increace: and I must decreace. 1608 Shakes. Per. i. ii. 85 Tyrants' fears Decrease not, but grow faster than the years. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. ii. (1838) I. 36 The number of citizens gradually decreased. 1854 Brewster More Worlds iv. 68 The temperature..decreases as we rise in the atmosphere. |
2. trans. To cause to grow less; to lessen, diminish.
| c 1470 Harding Chron. xvi. vii, For couetyse his brother to discreace. 1587 Mirr. Mag., Cordila xlv, He first decreast my wealth. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. 119 His Lands and goods, Which I haue bettered rather then decreast. 1651 Life Father Sarpi (1676) 80 Yet the Father knew very well that age decreaseth strength. c 1718 Prior An Epitaph 42 Nor cherish'd they relations poor, That might decrease their present store. 1865 Mill in Even. Star 10 July, That did not decrease in the least the hundreds of miles which London was distant from Edinburgh. |
Hence deˈcreasing vbl. n. and ppl. a., deˈcreasingly adv.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. ii. (1495) 298 In the whyche waters..it makyth encreasynge and decresynge. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Descrecimiento, decreasing. 1633 Fletcher Purple Isl. ix. l. 134 Which yet increases more with the decreasing day. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 277 [Quakers] hold that..baptism with water belonged to an inferior and decreasing dispensation. 1822 Examiner 219/1 Glaring on its contiguous objects, and decreasingly gleaming to the foreground. Mod. Food was decreasingly scarce. |