decrementn.

1621 R. Montagu Diatribæ Hist. Tithes 310 The decrements of the First-fruits.

1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies xix. 153 Hee would finde his decrements great, his increments small: his receits come farre short of his disbursements.

1660 R. Boyle New Exper. Physico-mechanicall xxi. 151 The greater decrement of the pressure of the Air.

1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 231 Rocks..suffer a continual Decrement, and grow lower and lower.

1774 J. Bryant New Syst. (new ed.) I. 339 A society..where there is a continual decrement.

1840 J. H. Green Vital Dynamics 81 Signs of the decrement of vital energy.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica vi. iv. 289 Our decrement accelerates, we set apace, and in our last dayes precipitate into our graves. View more context for this quotation

1693 J. Ray Three Physico-theol. Disc. (ed. 2) iii. v. 279 There is a decrement or decay both of Things and Men.

1610 J. Guillim Display of Heraldrie iii. iii. 91 Her diuers denominations in Heraldrie; as her Increment in her Increase..her Decrement, in her Waning; and her Detriment, in her Change and Eclipse.

1822 T. Taylor tr. Apuleius Metamorphosis 292 The Moon..defining the month through her increments, and afterwards by her equal decrements.

1753 Philos. Trans. 1751–2 (Royal Soc.) 47 liii. 335 The decrements of life may be esteemed nearly equal, after a certain age.

1756 W. Brakenridge in Philos. Trans. 1755 (Royal Soc.) 49 180 It will be easy to form a table of the decrements of life.

1830 J. F. W. Herschel Prelim. Disc. Study Nat. Philos. ii. vi. 178 The decrement of life, or the law of mortality.

1816 R. Jameson Treat. External Characters Minerals (ed. 2) 141 The decrements on the edges concur with those in the angles to produce the same crystalline form.

1823 H. J. Brooke Familiar Introd. Crystallogr. 18 When the additions do not cover the whole surface of a primary form, but there are rows of molecules omitted on the edges, or angles or the superimposed plates, such omission is called a decrement.

1858 H. T. Buckle Hist. Civilisation Eng. (ed. 2) II. vii. 402 The secondary forms of all crystals are derived from their primary forms by a regular process of decrement.

1666 R. Boyle Origine Formes & Qualities [What] the obtained powder amounts to over and above the decrement of weight.

1758 I. Lyons Treat. Fluxions 90 Let Υ be the decrement of y.

1812 J. Playfair Outl. Nat. Philos. I. 219 The decrements of heat in each second.

1846 H. Rogers Ess. (1860) I. 202 Admitting increase or diminution by infinitely small increments or decrements.

1883 Economist 15 Sept. If the unearned increment is to be appropriated by the State..The undeserved decrement, as perhaps it may be called, would surely claim compensation.

1879 Encycl. Brit. X. 50/1 Such needles have great advantages—where, for instance, the time of oscillation, the logarithmic decrement, or the extent of swing of the needle has to be observed.

1908 E. H. Barton Text Bk. Sound x. 577 Hartmann-Kempf found that the relation between logarithmic decrement and amplitude for three makes of tuning-fork is almost linear.

1913 Year-bk. Wireless Telegr. & Teleph. 294 The Marconi Company has brought out an instrument called a decremeter, which enables an approximate measurement of the decrement of a circuit to be made.

1927 E. G. Richardson Sound iv. 121 To estimate the rate of decay, the ratio of the amplitudes in two successive periods is obtained, a quantity which is known as the decrement. It is the logarithm of this quantity..which usually figures in calculations.

1929 J. A. Ratcliffe Physical Princ. Wireless i. 14 The reciprocal of this quantity, r√ ^c/ _l, is of great importance in the theory of oscillatory circuits; it is known as the decrement of the circuit, and corresponds to the logarithmic decrement of a mechanical oscillatory system.

1936 L. S. Palmer Wireless Engin. iii. 47 Circuits with small decrements have good selectivity.

1966 W. T. Thomson Vibration Theory ii. 48 A body vibrating in a viscous medium has a period of 0·20 sec. and an initial amplitude of 1·0 in. Determine the logarithmic decrement if the amplitude after 10 cycles is 0·02 in.