▪ I. atrophy, n.
(ˈætrəfɪ)
[a. F. atrophie, ad. L. atrophia, Gr. ἀτροϕία, n. of state f. ἄτροϕος ill-fed, not nourished, f. ἀ priv. + τροϕή nourishment.]
1. A wasting away of the body, or any part of it, through imperfect nourishment: emaciation.
| 1620 Venner Via Recta viii. 189 Which..bringeth the body into a deformed Atrophie or consumption. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 486 Moon-struck madness, pining atrophy. 1862 Trench Mirac. xix. 323 A partial atrophy, showing itself in a gradual wasting of the size of the limb. |
2. fig.
| 1653 Jer. Taylor Serm. Year Ded., We..fear the people will fall to an Atrophy, then to a loathing of holy food. 1782 J. Trumbull M'Fingal iv. (1795) 102 By fatal atrophy of purse. 1840 Carlyle Heroes (1858) 315 For the Scepticism..is..a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. |
▪ II. atrophy, v.
(ˈætrəfɪ)
[f. prec. n.]
lit. and fig.
1. trans. To affect with atrophy, to starve.
| 1865 Mill in Westm. Rev. XXVIII. 9 Organs are strengthened by exercise and atrophied by disuse. 1876 Hamerton Intell. Life ii. v. 428 A constant and close pressure atrophies the higher mind. |
2. intr. To become atrophied or abortive.
| 1865 Livingstone Zambesi xi. 222 The horns, mere stumps not a foot long, must have atrophied. 1883 G. Allen Col. Clout's Gard. xxi. 121 As the fruit ripens, one of them [the seeds] almost always atrophies. |