diminishing

1. 1
   adjective

   Becoming smaller, fewer, or less over time.

   The team's diminishing lead made the final minutes tense.

   Economists warned about the diminishing value of the currency.

   Similarshrinking, dwindling, decreasing, waning

   Oppositeincreasing, rising

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of diminish.

   Supplies were diminishing faster than anyone expected.

   Diminishing the budget further would harm the program.

   Note

   The -ing form keeps every sense of diminish, so it works both intransitively (supplies were diminishing) and transitively (diminishing the budget). It also carries the verb's belittling sense: diminishing someone's achievements means making them seem smaller than they are, not actually reducing them. Before a noun, as in a diminishing lead, the word has settled into the adjective, which can even take more and most.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A reduction or lessening; a diminishment.

   A gradual diminishing of public trust followed the scandal.

   The diminishing of natural resources forced the town to ration carefully.

   Similarreduction, decrease, decline, lessening, erosion

   Oppositeincrease, growth, rise

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