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When something bad or painful abates, it becomes less strong or severe.
If you abridge a book or play, you make it shorter by making cuts to the original.
An addendum is an additional section added to the end of a book, document, or speech that gives more information.
To aggrandize someone means to make them seem richer, more powerful, and more important than they really are.
When you append something to something else, you attach or add it, such as extra information to the end of a book.
To augment something is to increase its value or effectiveness by adding something to it.
Something austere is simple and plain in its style; an austere person is strict and severe with themselves.
To bowdlerize a book, play, or other literary work is to remove parts of it that are considered indecent or unsuitable for family reading.
When a substance contracts, it becomes smaller in size.
If you cull items or information, you gather them from a number of different places in a selective manner.
If you curtail something, you reduce or limit it.
Someone defoliates a tree or plant by removing its leaves, usually by applying a chemical agent.
A diminution of something is a reduction in the size, number, or importance of it.
To efface something is to erase or remove it completely from recognition or memory.
If something engenders a particular feeling or attitude, it causes that condition.
When you excise something, you remove it by cutting it out.
To expurgate part of a book, play, or other text is to remove parts of it before publishing because they are considered objectionable, harmful, or offensive.
If you extirpate something, you completely destroy it because it is unpleasant or unwanted.
Gestation is the process by which a new idea, plan, or piece of work develops in your mind.
An infusion is the introduction or pouring of one thing into another—such as new ideas brought into a workplace or poured purple dye spreading throughout a glass of water.
Something luxuriant, such as plants or hair, is growing well and is very healthy.
If something proliferates, it grows and spreads quickly so that there is a great abundance of it.
If governments, companies, or other institutions retrench, they reduce costs and/or decrease the amount that they spend in order to save money.
If you truncate something, you make it shorter or quicker by removing or cutting off part of it.
Verb
pare
pair
Context
In a troubled economy, many companies choose to pare down their work force by reducing their number of employees. By trimming staff, they are able to pare down or lessen costs and thus save extra money. As a result, millions of people cut back on or pare down their expenses as well, which in turn denies companies the revenue they need to hold onto their employees.
Quiz:Try again!
When should you think about paring a speech?
If it is too long and covers too many topics.
It it is unfinished, and you have not practiced it.
Pear Repair? "No, Jimmy, you cannot repair that pear once you've pared or trimmed its peel ... and no, not even glue will work!"
Examples
All you hold in your hand is a cool shred of shell, an inch long, pared so thin that it passes a faint pink light. It is an essence, a smooth condensation of the air, a curve.
— Annie Dillard, American author, from _Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_
As the networks pare travel expenses, technicians aren’t being given enough time to set up, which is one reason that so many telecasts contain glitches.
—
Sports Illustrated
The Pentagon could potentially pare down its ballistic missile defense arsenal from the six different interceptors in service or development to just the Standard.
—
Wired
That leaves about 3.7% that has to be cut. “That largest part of that cut will fall on academic affairs. We’ve already started conversations with the deans to address that kind of reduction,” Provost James Holloway said. “I think we have consensus that we want to (make cuts) in a strategic way. We don’t want to just pare away a little bit from here and a little bit there, which is what we’ve done in the past. We need to be a little more strategic.”
—
Albuquerque Journal
When you pare an apple you “prepare” it for eating or for use in a recipe by cutting away the peel.
Word Theater
Ghost World He has pared down his record collection to what he considers to be the must-haves.
The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!
