[ad. L. attenuātiōn-em, n. of action f. attenuāre to ATTENUATE: see -ATION. Cf. F. atténuation.] The action of attenuating; attenuated condition.
1. The making thin or slender in transverse measure; diminution of thickness; emaciation.
a. 1631. Donne, Select. (1840), 265. Neither in a superfluous and cumbersome fatness, nor in an uncomely … attenuation.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, iii. 60. The omissions of certain deposits in some parts, and their attenuation in others.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, vi. 20. His stature seemed magnified by the attenuation of his form.
2. The making less dense; diminution of density.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 40. All those elements doo onely differ in attenuation and condensation.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 159. Heat doth … rarifie that body [i.e., air], and by attenuation … disposeth it for expulsion.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 273. The Attenuation of the Aliment makes it perspirable.
1873. Watts, Fownes’ Chem., 576. The diminished density, or attenuation of the wort.
3. The process of weakening, as if by dilution; diminution of characteristic force.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., § 5. 149. The process by which the results of philosophy are rendered popular is not one of attenuation but of translation.
1882. Manch. Guard., 22 Sept., 5. The gradual ‘attenuation’ of disease germs.
