# lessen
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English lessenen, lasnen, equivalent to less +‎ -en (verbal suffix).

### Pronunciation

* enPR: lěʹsən, IPA: /ˈlɛsən/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Homophone: lesson
* Rhymes: -ɛsən

### Verb

lessen (third-person singular simple present lessens, present participle lessening, simple past and past participle lessened)
* (transitive) To make less; to diminish; to reduce.
** a. 1686, Benjamin Calamy, a sermon
    Charity […] shall lessen his punishment.
** December 6, 1709, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preach'd before the sons of the clergy at their anniversary-meeting in the Church of St. Paul
    St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.
** 1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 44:The thin glass that makes mirror tiles light in weight also tends to lessen their reflective quality.
** 2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients'”, in Guardian‎:Many hospitals have not taken simple steps to lessen the distress and confusion which dementia sufferers' often feel on being somewhere so unfamiliar – such as making signs large and easy to read, using colour schemes to help patients find their way around unfamiliar wards and not putting family mementoes such as photographs nearby.
* (intransitive) To become less.

#### Translations
### Conjunction

lessen
* (nonstandard, dialect) unless.
** 1895, Book-keeper (Detroit, Mich. : 1888). - Volume 8, Issue 6, page 10:Ober closed his encomium with the serious statement that “Lessen he could marry Miss Jennie he would be a bachelor the balance of his life," to which the drayman replied that " If Oi were Miss Janie Oi'd black yer oi the minute ye thought of such a thing. The oidee."
** 2011, Caroline Miller, Lamb in His Bosom, page 107:She was fine-looking; he couldn't find a fault with her 'lessen he made it up.
** 2011, J. California Cooper, Family:No more work outta them lessen they paid now.
** 2013, Lornabelle Gethers, Honey Bea's Everlasting Gift, page 88:That usually all they need fuh go that straight and narrow path, lessen they got that real badness or foolishness in them.

### Anagrams

* Elsens, elsens, lenses, sensel

## Dutch
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈlɛsə(n)/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛsən

### Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch lesschen, from a merger of two Old Dutch [Term?] verbs:
* *leskan, from Proto-West Germanic *leskan, from Proto-Germanic *leskaną; class 5 strong, intransitive.
* lesken, from Proto-West Germanic *laskijan, from Proto-Germanic *laskijaną; class 1 weak, causative of the first verb.

#### Verb

lessen
* (transitive) to quench (thirst)

##### Derived terms

* blussen
* dorstlessend
* dorstlesser

### Etymology 2

From les +‎ -en.

#### Verb

lessen
* (intransitive) to take a lesson (usually a driving lesson)

##### Conjugation
### Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

#### Noun

lessen
* plural of les

## Hungarian
### Etymology

les +‎ -jen

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈlɛʃːɛn]
* Hyphenation: les‧sen

### Verb

lessen
* third-person singular subjunctive present indefinite of les

## Swedish
### Adjective

lessen
* Alternative spelling of ledsen

### Further reading

* lessen in Svensk ordbok.

### Anagrams

* selens