[f. as prec. + -ING1.] The action of LESSEN v., in various senses. Diminution; † a degradation, disparagement.
1428. Surtees Misc. (1888), 8. Lessenyng of ye sumes of ye paymentes.
1631. Massinger, Beleeve as You List, V. ii. I take it as A lessening of my torments.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 12 Nov. Though I love the play as much as ever I did, yet I do not like the puppets at all, but think it to be a lessening to it.
1692. Locke, Educ., § 214. Their Thoughts run after Play and Pleasure, wherein they take it as a Lessening to be controll’d.
1714. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1725), I. 292. We contribute to the relief of him we have compassion with, and are instrumental to the lessening of his sorrows.
1732. Sir C. Wogan, in Swift’s Wks. (1841), II. 669/1. The very distinction [of English and Irish] carries in the face of it a lessening, and strikes the fancy with the ungrateful idea of misery.
1891. Athenæum, 18 April, 503/3. There is no lessening of this defect, but rather increase.
† b. See LESSEN v. 2. Obs.
1697. Collier, Immor. Stage, i. (1730), 47. A Flight of Madness, like a Faulcon’s Lessening, makes them the more gaz’d at!
