decrease

decrease

I. de‧crease¹ /dɪˈkriːs/ BrE AmE verb [intransitive and transitive]
[Date: 1300-1400; Language: Anglo-French; Origin: decreistre, from Latin decrescere, from crescere 'to grow']
to become less or go down to a lower level, or to make something do this ⇨ reduce OPP increase:
The number of people who have the disease has decreased significantly in recent years.
They want to decrease their reliance on oil.
decrease by
Average house prices decreased by 13% last year.
decrease to
By 1881, the population of Ireland had decreased to 5.2 million.
decrease from
The North’s share of the world’s energy consumption is expected to decrease from 70% to 60%.
decrease in
Attacks of asthma decrease in frequency through early adult life.
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COLLOCATIONS
■ adverbs
▪ significantly (=enough to be an important change) Violent crime has significantly decreased over the last ten years.
▪ considerably/substantially (=a lot) During this period unemployment decreased considerably.
▪ markedly (=very noticeably) Aircraft collisions decreased markedly during the 1990s.
▪ rapidly (=very quickly) Since then, elephant numbers have been decreasing rapidly.
▪ dramatically (=suddenly and a lot) The survival rate decreases dramatically as the disease progresses.
▪ slightly (=a little) Population levels actually began to slightly decrease five years ago.
▪ steadily (=gradually and continuously) The proportion of adult cigarette smokers has been steadily decreasing.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ decrease to become less in number or amount: The average rainfall has decreased by around 30 percent.
▪ go down to decrease. Go down is less formal than decrease and is the usual word to use in conversation: Unemployment has gone down in the past few months.
▪ decline formal to decrease – used with numbers or amounts, or about the level or standard of something: The standard of living has declined. | Support for the government is steadily declining. | Salaries have declined by around 4.5%.
▪ diminish to become smaller or less important: Union membership diminished from 30,000 at its height to just 2,000 today.
▪ fall/drop to decrease, especially by a large amount. Fall and drop are less formal than decrease: The number of tigers in the wild has fallen to just over 10,000. | At night, the temperature drops to minus 20 degrees.
▪ plunge /plʌndʒ//plummet /ˈplʌmət, ˈplʌmɪt/ to suddenly decrease very quickly and by a very large amount: Share prices have plummeted 29% in the last four months. | Climate change could cause global temperatures to plummet.
▪ slide if a price or value slides, it gradually decreases in a way that causes problems – used especially in news reports: The dollar fell in late trading in New York yesterday and slid further this morning.
▪ dwindle /ˈdwɪndl/ to gradually decrease until there is very little left of something, especially numbers or amounts, popularity, or importance: Support for the theory is dwindling.
▪ taper off /ˈteɪpə $ -ər/ if a number or the amount of an activity that is happening tapers off, it gradually decreases, especially so that it stops completely: Political violence tapered off after the elections.