What's the difference between impair and lessen?

Impair


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make worse; to diminish in quantity, value, excellence, or strength; to deteriorate; as, to impair health, character, the mind, value.
  • (v. t.) To grow worse; to deteriorate.
  • (a.) Not fit or appropriate.
  • (n.) Diminution; injury.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) 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.
  • (2) The various evocational changes appear to form sets of interconnected systems and this complex network seems to embody some plasticity since it has been possible to suppress experimentally some of the most universal evocational events or alter their temporal order without impairing evocation itself.
  • (3) The CHI patients were impaired overall on the FTE but not the CTE.
  • (4) We studied the effects of the localisation and size of ischemic brain infarcts and the influence of potential covariates (gender, age, time since infarction, physical handicap, cognitive impairment, aphasia, cortical atrophy and ventricular size) on 'post-stroke depression'.
  • (5) Changes in renal renin levels after the administration of glycerol were not significant, although lower renal renin values were consistently found in rabbits with more severe impairment of renal function.
  • (6) These findings suggest that aerosolization of ATP into the cystic fibrosis-affected bronchial tree might be hazardous in terms of enhancement of parenchymal damage, which would result from neutrophil elastase release, and in terms of impaired respiratory lung function.
  • (7) There was no correlation between disturbed gastric clearance, impaired gall bladder contraction, and prolonged colonic transit time in the patients with cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy nor was there a correlation between any disturbed motor function and age or duration of diabetes.
  • (8) No biologic investigation of the hemostatic impairment could be performed under the emergency conditions of this field study.
  • (9) Two hours after the administration, the combinations of ethanol plus diazepam and ethanol plus meclophenoxate impaired significantly the number of necessary repetitions.
  • (10) The effect of dietary fibre digestion in the human gut on its ability to alter bowel habit and impair mineral absorption has been investigated using the technique of metablic balance.
  • (11) The Test of Motor Impairment (TOMI) was used to select 12 children with a Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and 12 age-matched controls.
  • (12) Patients with MID, but not those with DAT, exhibited correlations between enlargement of the third and lateral ventricles and severity of cognitive impairment.
  • (13) ACTH 4-10 appeared to slightly impair selective attention as indicated by AEP responses.
  • (14) After large bowel removal, there was impaired glucose tolerance and attenuated plasma insulin secretion.
  • (15) Only the aged treatment group demonstrated significantly impaired performance.
  • (16) Case 3 was that of a 70-year-old female with left impaired vision and frontal headache.
  • (17) This review focused on the methods used to identify language impairment in specifically language-impaired subjects participating in 72 research studies that were described in four journals from 1983 to 1988.
  • (18) Our results clearly indicate impaired carbohydrate metabolism in potassium-depleted rats.
  • (19) One subject had developed renal failure, while the other two continued to function at a high level with no evidence of cognitive decline or psychiatric or neurologic impairment.
  • (20) The subscales Depression, Inactivity and Physical Impairment could not be identified as a factor.

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.