Literary notes about Diminish (AI summary)
In literature, "diminish" is employed with rich versatility, signifying a reduction of size, intensity, or significance in both concrete and abstract dimensions. Authors use it to describe a physical lessening, such as the fading of light that "seemed to ascend and diminish till it joined the sky" [1] or the gradual decrease in the potency of a substance [2]; yet it also conveys metaphorical erosion, as when personal faults or fortunes are steadily reduced [3, 4]. In philosophical and economic discourses, the term serves to denote the lessening of forces or quantity—illustrated by discussions on profits and resources that can "diminish" under specific conditions [5, 6]—while sometimes also marking the process by which relationships or distances become more intimate [7]. This multifaceted application enriches the text by underscoring change, decay, or modulation across a wide spectrum of human and natural phenomena.
- III Not a soul was visible on the hedgeless highway, or on either side of it, and the white road seemed to ascend and diminish till it joined the sky.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy - If we dilute it, or lower its temperature by ice water, we diminish its solvent or digestive power, and dyspepsia is the natural result.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - The messenger answered with respect: My master desires to diminish the number of his faults, but he cannot come to the end of them.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau - I was surpris'd to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin - I have not insured the cargo, so as not diminish my profits, which will be considerable if I succeed.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - As capitals increase in any country, the profits which can be made by employing them necessarily diminish.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - Perhaps one of those beloved ones he had so often thought of was thinking of him, and striving to diminish the distance that separated them.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
