diminish, minimize

diminish, minimize
Diminish means "to make smaller, less, or less important," "to reduce, shrink, decrease, or contract": "Two aspirin tablets will diminish your pain." Minimize means "to reduce to the smallest possible amount, degree, size, or extent" and also means "to belittle": "It is always unwise to minimize the horrors of war." "Since I am doing the best I can, you should not try to minimize my efforts." Minimize is an absolute term and should not be accompanied by adverbs such as somewhat and greatly. Instead of writing greatly minimize, write diminish or reduce.

Dictionary of problem words and expressions. . 1975.

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  • minimize — See diminish. See diminish, minimize …   Dictionary of problem words and expressions

  • diminish — See diminish, minimize …   Dictionary of problem words and expressions

  • diminish — I verb abate, abbreviate, abrade, abridge, alleviate, assuage, bate, become smaller, belittle, bound, cause to be smaller, cause to taper, cheapen, compress, consume, contract, curb, curtail, cut back, cut down, damp down, dampen, decelerate,… …   Law dictionary

  • minimize — I verb abbreviate, abridge, attach little importance to, attenuate, bedwarf, belittle, cheapen, clip, criticize, curtail, cut down, cut down to size, cut short decimate, decrease, decry, deduct, deflate, degrade, demote, depreciate, derogate,… …   Law dictionary

  • diminish — [v1] become or cause to be less abate, abbreviate, attenuate, become smaller, close, contract, curtail, cut, decline, decrease, depreciate, die out, drain, dwindle, ebb, extenuate, fade away, lessen, lower, minify, moderate, peter out, recede,… …   New thesaurus

  • minimize — [v] make smaller; underrate abbreviate, attenuate, belittle, cheapen, curtail, cut down to size, cut rate, decrease, decry, deprecate, depreciate, derogate, detract, diminish, discount, disparage, downplay*, dwarf*, knock*, knock down*, lessen,… …   New thesaurus

  • minimize — verb 1) the aim is to minimize costs Syn: keep down, keep at/to a minimum, reduce, decrease, cut down, lessen, curtail, diminish, prune; informal slash Ant: maximize, increase 2) we should not minimize h …   Thesaurus of popular words

  • diminish — Synonyms and related words: abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, ablate, abrade, abridge, abstract, abuse, adjust to, allay, alleviate, allow for, alter, anesthetize, appease, assuage, attemper, attenuate, bank the fire, bate, be eaten away, belittle …   Moby Thesaurus

  • minimize — Synonyms and related words: abbreviate, abridge, bedwarf, belittle, bring down, bring into discredit, bring low, cry down, curtail, cut down, de emphasize, debase, decrease, decry, degrade, deprecate, depreciate, derogate, derogate from, detract… …   Moby Thesaurus

  • diminish — v 1. lessen, reduce, lower, abate, decrease, bate; contract, shrink, constrict, narrow; cut, pare, prune, truncate, crop, lop, dock, clip; condense, cut down, compress, shorten, abridge, scale down, boil down; abbreviate, curtail, cut short. 2.… …   A Note on the Style of the synonym finder

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