What's the difference between decrease and slacken?

Decrease


Definition:

  • (n.) To grow less, -- opposed to increase; to be diminished gradually, in size, degree, number, duration, etc., or in strength, quality, or excellence; as, they days decrease in length from June to December.
  • (v. t.) To cause to grow less; to diminish gradually; as, extravagance decreases one's means.
  • (v.) A becoming less; gradual diminution; decay; as, a decrease of revenue or of strength.
  • (v.) The wane of the moon.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Furthermore, it had early diagnostic (seven days) as well as prognostic value, as revealed by response to therapy and decrease in COA titer.
  • (2) Such a decrease significantly biased survival (p = 0.001).
  • (3) The proportion of motile spermatozoa decreased with time at the same rate when samples were prepared in either HEPES or phosphate buffers.
  • (4) Clinical signs of disease developed as early as 15 days after transition to the experimental diets and included impaired vision, decreased response to external stimuli, and abnormal gait.
  • (5) One hour after direct mechanical cardiomassage (DMCM) a moderately pronounced edema of the intercellular spaces in the basal compartment of the seminiferous epithelium, normal content of lactate and succinate dehydrogenases, and a certain decrease in the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenases and NAD- and NADP-diaphorases were noted.
  • (6) The cross sectional area of the aortic lumen was gradually decreased while the length of the stenotic lesion gradually increased by using strips with different width.
  • (7) A change in the pattern of care of children with IDDM, led to a pronounced decrease in hospital use by this patient group.
  • (8) With UVB treatment clinical improvement was achieved, and a less pronounced decrease in epidermal LC was noticed.
  • (9) Measurement of the intraspinal monoamine level revealed a decrease in the intraspinal norepinephrine level in the treated animals.
  • (10) All subjects completed the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, which measures the use and perceived effectiveness of a variety of cognitive and behavioral coping strategies in controlling and decreasing pain.
  • (11) On removal of selective pressure, the His+ phenotype was lost more readily than the Ura+ Trp+ markers, with a corresponding decrease in plasmid copy number.
  • (12) This clinical improvement was also associated with a decrease of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p less than 0.001), decrease of C-reactive protein (p less than 0.0001) and with improvement of anaemia (p less than 0.05).
  • (13) These results suggest that the pelvic floor is affected by progressive denervation but descent during straining tends to decrease with advancing age.
  • (14) On the other hand, after exposure to BrdUrd, neuron specific enolase decreased in NB-1 and SK-N-DZ and increased in GOTO.
  • (15) In X-irradiated litters, almost invariably, the incidence of anophthalmia was higher in exencephalic than in nonexencephalic embryos and the ratio of these incidences (relative risk) decreased toward 1 with increasing dose.
  • (16) Blood flow decreased immediately after skin expansion in areas over the tissue expander on days 0 and 1 and returned to baseline levels within 24 hours.
  • (17) Western blot analysis of these mitochondria using an antibody against carnitine palmitoyltransferase II purified from beef heart demonstrates a 68-kDa protein, which under ischemic conditions apparently is decreased by 2 kDa.
  • (18) Even with hepatic lipase, phospholipid hydrolysis could not deplete VLDL and IDL of sufficient phospholipid molecules to account for the loss of surface phospholipid that accompanies triacylglycerol hydrolysis and decreasing core volume as LDL is formed (or for conversion of HDL2 to HDL3).
  • (19) Content of cyclic nucleoside monophosphates was decreased in all the eye tissues in experimental toxico-allergic uveitis as well as penetration of cAMP into the fluid of anterior chamber of the eye.
  • (20) Type 1 changes (decreased signal intensity on T1-weighted spin-echo images and increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images) were identified in 20 patients (4%) and type 2 (increased signal intensity on T1-weighted images and isointense or slightly increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images) in 77 patients (16%).

Slacken


Definition:

  • (a.) To become slack; to be made less tense, firm, or rigid; to decrease in tension; as, a wet cord slackens in dry weather.
  • (a.) To be remiss or backward; to be negligent.
  • (a.) To lose cohesion or solidity by a chemical combination with water; to slake; as, lime slacks.
  • (a.) To abate; to become less violent.
  • (a.) To lose rapidity; to become more slow; as, a current of water slackens.
  • (a.) To languish; to fail; to flag.
  • (a.) To end; to cease; to desist; to slake.
  • (v. t.) To render slack; to make less tense or firm; as, to slack a rope; to slacken a bandage.
  • (v. t.) To neglect; to be remiss in.
  • (v. t.) To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water; to slake; as, to slack lime.
  • (v. t.) To cause to become less eager; to repress; to make slow or less rapid; to retard; as, to slacken pursuit; to slacken industry.
  • (v. t.) To cause to become less intense; to mitigate; to abate; to ease.
  • (n.) A spongy, semivitrifled substance which miners or smelters mix with the ores of metals to prevent their fusion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Torque pulses (of 10 or 100 msec) injected randomly to load or unload the movements stretched or slackened the appropiate prime movers: biceps or triceps.
  • (2) Although the rate of growth has slackened somewhat during recent years, the private pension movement is now a major contributor to the income maintenance needs of the American worker during retirement.
  • (3) While the slackening of the woof and the dimension of the meshes are minimal at both the beginning and end of the cycle, they reach a maximum on forteenth day.
  • (4) Increasing doses led to a negative inotropic effect with slackened relaxation and loss of its load sensitivity (up to 390 mumol l-1 for sulmazole; up to 350 mumol-1 for theophylline).
  • (5) Our findings suggest a mechanism eventually leading to slackening of the cervical spine ligamentous apparatus and atlantoaxial subluxation in RA.
  • (6) The result is diminished uterine volume and slackening of the myometrium.
  • (7) This also raises the question to what extent these fears become manifest because of a slackening of the defence mechanisms.
  • (8) The collagen fibres in this case stretch out and the skin tension slackens.
  • (9) The potential for slackened physician-patient relationships, however, could jeopardize that quality.
  • (10) One is the mobilization of a global effort to develop and test technologies, where the available technologies are not satisfactory to meet the needs and where the research is slackening.
  • (11) Blepharochalasis implies the symptom or general term (Kettesy) applied to the slackening and thinning out of the upper lid.
  • (12) After strong growth in the first six months of the year, the pace of growth in manufacturing has also slackened as a result of weaker demand from key markets including Europe and China.” Taken as a whole the UK’s economy is now 3.4% above its pre-crisis peak in the first quarter of 2008.
  • (13) 10 (11 p.cent) died within one month of surgery, but slackening of the sutures was an attributable cause in none of these cases.
  • (14) So over the coming months, far from slackening, you'll see the rate of change and reform at the BBC go faster and deeper.
  • (15) The Tumble is hard but it slackens off after a couple of kilometres so it’s hard to pull out a lot of time.
  • (16) Vmax was also determined by a procedure in which the cell length was slackened and the time of unloaded shortening was recorded (slack test).
  • (17) The sales pattern of the aerosols altered, showing a slackening of the rate of increase of sales in 1966 and 1967.
  • (18) Its growth rate and cellular structure were observed over the subsequent 19 months, the former remaining constant for the first 14 months, then slackening markedly during the final 4 months.
  • (19) On debt and taxation, rich and poor countries are worlds apart | Tove Maria Ryding Read more “Already, several countries have turned to multilateral lending institutions, such as the IMF and the World Bank, in order to obtain financial assistance: Angola, Azerbaijan, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe have already asked for bailouts or are in talks to do so.” The trade and development report said that against a backdrop of falling commodity prices and slackening growth in the developed world, borrowing costs for poor countries had been “driven up very quickly, turning what seemed reasonable debt burdens under favourable conditions into largely unsustainable debt.
  • (20) In another welcome sign of rebalancing, exports to non-EU countries were up by 3.5% ( full details here ) Photograph: ISTAT 9.25am BST Draghi is also warning that eurozone governments must not slacken off the pace of reform - a familiar refrain for the ECB chief: Thanks to their consolidation efforts so far, the primary fiscal deficit for the euro area has fallen from 3.5% of GDP in 2009 to around 0.5% in 2012.