lessenings

A person who had casually observed her gait would have thought it irregular; and the lessenings and increasings of speed with which she proceeded in the direction of the pillar could be accounted for only by a motive much more disturbing than an intention to look through a telescope.

Two on a Tower 2006

Sound changes thus take place, in general, as lessenings of the labor of articulation, by means of adaptation to prevailing rest positions of the vocal organs.

Human Traits and their Social Significance Irwin Edman

There are, as a craft flies, constant increases or lessenings of pressure in the air-stream that is sweeping under and over its wings; and all these fluctuations influence its equilibrium.

Learning to Fly A Practical Manual for Beginners Claude Grahame-White 1919

They are all attitudes of the soul; not conscious enlargements or lessenings of the very stuff; of the soul.

The Complex Vision John Cowper Powys 1917

A person who had casually observed her gait would have thought it irregular; and the lessenings and increasings of speed with which she proceeded in the direction of the pillar could be accounted for only by a motive much more disturbing than an intention to look through a telescope.

Two on a Tower Thomas Hardy 1884

All change must be grievous to an estate of absolute, entire, unmingled happiness; but then to change to the lowest pitch, and that at first, with out inuring the mind to the burden by gradual, intermediate lessenings and declensions, this is the sharpest and most afflicting calamity that human nature can be capable of.

Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions. Vol. II. 1634-1716 1823

"Continuous degrees" is a term applied to the gradual lessenings or decreasings from grosser to finer, or from denser to rarer; or rather, to growths and increasings from finer to grosser, or from rarer to denser; precisely like the gradations of light to shade, or of heat to cold.

Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom Emanuel Swedenborg 1730