What's the difference between decline and lessen?

Decline


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To bend, or lean downward; to take a downward direction; to bend over or hang down, as from weakness, weariness, despondency, etc.; to condescend.
  • (v. i.) To tend or draw towards a close, decay, or extinction; to tend to a less perfect state; to become diminished or impaired; to fail; to sink; to diminish; to lessen; as, the day declines; virtue declines; religion declines; business declines.
  • (v. i.) To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw; as, a line that declines from straightness; conduct that declines from sound morals.
  • (v. i.) To turn away; to shun; to refuse; -- the opposite of accept or consent; as, he declined, upon principle.
  • (v. t.) To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.
  • (v. t.) To cause to decrease or diminish.
  • (v. t.) To put or turn aside; to turn off or away from; to refuse to undertake or comply with; reject; to shun; to avoid; as, to decline an offer; to decline a contest; he declined any participation with them.
  • (v. t.) To inflect, or rehearse in order the changes of grammatical form of; as, to decline a noun or an adjective.
  • (v. t.) To run through from first to last; to repeat like a schoolboy declining a noun.
  • (v. i.) A falling off; a tendency to a worse state; diminution or decay; deterioration; also, the period when a thing is tending toward extinction or a less perfect state; as, the decline of life; the decline of strength; the decline of virtue and religion.
  • (v. i.) That period of a disorder or paroxysm when the symptoms begin to abate in violence; as, the decline of a fever.
  • (v. i.) A gradual sinking and wasting away of the physical faculties; any wasting disease, esp. pulmonary consumption; as, to die of a decline.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Direct fetal digitalization led to a reduction in umbilical artery resistance, a decline in the abdominal circumference from 20.3 to 17.8 cm, and resolution of the ascites within 72 h. Despite this dramatic response to therapy, fetal death occurred on day 5 of treatment.
  • (2) This trend appeared to reverse itself in the low dose animals after 3 hr, whereas in the high dose group, cardiac output continued to decline.
  • (3) Our results suggest that the peripheral sensitivity to hypoxia declined more than that to CO2, implying a peripheral chemoreceptor origin for hypoxic ventilatory decline.
  • (4) By 24 hr, rough endoplasmic reticulum in thecal cells increased from 4.2 to 7% of cell volume, while the amount in granulosa cells increased from less than 3.5% to more than 10%; the quantity remained relatively constant in the theca but declined to prestimulation values in the granulosa layer.
  • (5) Here we show that this induction of AP-2 mRNA is at the level of transcription and is transient, reaching a peak 48-72 hr after the addition of RA and declining thereafter, even in the continuous presence of RA.
  • (6) We studied the hemodynamic changes caused by bronchoscopy under LA in mechanically ventilated patients and the effect of LA on the endoscopic decline in arterial pO2.
  • (7) Comparison of developmental series of D. merriami and T. bottae revealed that the decline of the artery in the latter species is preceded by a greater degree of arterial coarctation, or narrowing, as it passes though the developing stapes.
  • (8) Foetal serum TSH concentration declined significantly between 20 and 21 days of gestation, reached a low level at delivery, and remained low for several days after birth.
  • (9) The decline in the frequency of serious complications was primarily due to a decrease in the proportion of patients with open fractures treated with plate osteosynthesis from nearly 50% to 19%.
  • (10) Both gp175 and gp250 showed the greatest increase in fucosylation at 10(-5) M, which was also the dose at which RA induced laminin maximally, while the fucosylation of gp400 was greatest at 10(-8) M RA and declined at higher concentrations.
  • (11) Lambing rates approach 1.5 lambs per ewe per year, but a death rate of 23 per cent and an offtake of 27 per cent, means that flock numbers are probably slightly declining.
  • (12) In the absence of haemodialysis, the decline in plasma concentrations of lisinopril and enalaprilat was extremely slow and plasma concentrations were generally high.
  • (13) Steroid-treated steers showed a slight decline in synthesis which was significant (P less than 0.05) at week +5 post-implant while amino acid oxidation was significantly lower at weeks +2 (P less than 0.01) and +5 (P less than 0.05) compared with control animals.
  • (14) Following thawing, the initial motility index (MI) scores of mf cryopreserved by either method were not significantly different from untreated controls; however, over a period of 15 days in culture the MI scores of both cryopreserved groups showed a small but significant overall decline, with the methanol technique producing the lowest scores.
  • (15) The last stems from trends such as declining birth rate, an increasingly mobile society, diminished importance of the nuclear family, and the diminishing attractiveness of professions involved with providing maintenance care.
  • (16) Both strong-stop DNAs are made early during in vitro reactions and decline in concentration later, consistent with postulated roles as initiators of long minus- and plus-strand DNA.
  • (17) Further, four of five patients long after PTRA remained normotensive, and in all patients plasma renin levels declined.
  • (18) Initial exposure of cells to low concentrations of either H2O2 or xanthine oxidase resulted in a transient increase in membrane potential relative to control cells (P less than 0.001), followed by an exponential decline in potential (P less than 0.001).
  • (19) How big tobacco lost its final fight for hearts, lungs and minds Read more Shares in Imperial closed down 1% and British American Tobacco lost 0.75%, both underperforming the FTSE100’s 0.3% decline.
  • (20) However, cAMP also has posttranscriptional effects on the enzyme's synthesis, as evidenced by the 4- to 5-fold enhanced decline seen when cultured hepatoma cells are exposed to cAMP and transcription is inhibited.

Lessen


Definition:

  • (a.) To make less; to reduce; to make smaller, or fewer; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; as, to lessen a kingdom, or a population; to lessen speed, rank, fortune.
  • (v. i.) To become less; to shrink; to contract; to decrease; to be diminished; as, the apparent magnitude of objects lessens as we recede from them; his care, or his wealth, lessened.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The transmission of alcoholism and its effects are thereby lessened for future generations of children of alcoholics.
  • (2) Bacteria can stop or lessen antibodies synthesis process.
  • (3) Behavioral variables, including interreinforcement interval and drug self-administration history, appear to be important determinants of whether or not reinforcement will be demonstrated, particularly among the benzodiazepines; but the range of conditions under which behavioral and pharmacological variables interact to promote or lessen the likelihood of self-administration of these drugs remains to be determined experimentally.
  • (4) "It is in my power to lessen their sentence – it's not excluded that that will happen."
  • (5) Diminished pressor responsiveness was considered to be due to concurrent reduction of central sympathetic vasomotor activity, because sympathetic nerve responses to hypothalamic stimulation were appreciably lessened in tripamide-treated SHR.
  • (6) The introduction of biological valves or of valves with a lessened risk of embolism is highly desirable in such cases.
  • (7) In this paper, these and related facts were summarized and some precautions were suggested to lessen the increase of resistant strains in this country.
  • (8) Recent improvements in surgical techniques and selective embolization have lessened the risks of surgical excision, decreased the blood loss, and diminished the time required for resection.
  • (9) We have previously shown that in the cat, taurine is an osmoprotective molecule that lessens mortality, neurological morbidity, and brain-cell dehydration during chronic hypernatremic dehydration.
  • (10) Rats given Sendai virus concurrently with the FCA, or any time after FCA was injected, did not have a lessened severity of the arthritic reaction, as compared with that in control animals.
  • (11) A decrease in relative risks since diagnosis of the first primary cancer was seen that may partly be attributed to a lessening of the intensity of medical surveillance with time.
  • (12) Incorporation of porosity into the grafts, which is necessary for tissue ingrowth, is expected to lessen this difference.
  • (13) The data strongly suggest that conferring the sick role on the mentally ill does not lessen rejection, but may, in some instances, increase social rejection.
  • (14) In contrast, hydroxyurea treatment was associated with a 1.5-fold to sevenfold increase in F cells and a 2.3- to 27-fold increase in the percentage of Hb F. In the three patients whose response reached a plateau, hydroxyurea treatment was associated with lessened hemolysis, decreased serum bilirubin and lactate dehydrogenase levels, and prolonged 51chromium-labeled RBC survival.
  • (15) O’Malley also called for: The relationship between federal immigration law enforcement and local law enforcement to be significantly lessened.
  • (16) Utilization of outpatient surgical centers helps reduce the cost of health care, lessens the disruption of patients' personal lives, and promotes their recovery through early ambulation and a lower incidence of postoperative nosocomial complications.
  • (17) It also lessened the hypertonus of isolated guinea-pig trachea caused by pilocarpine.
  • (18) The use of tissue allografts lessens patient morbidity and suffering and in many cases spares limbs and lives.
  • (19) Unlike acute combinations, chronic imipramine lessened the rate reducing effect of methadone.
  • (20) The results of a bronchial challenge to Aspergillus species, however, remained positive; these positive results suggest that long-term memory immune mechanisms may play an important role in the pathogenesis of hypersensitivity pneumonitis and lessen the importance of precipitins in establishing a diagnosis.