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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

thin out en · VERB

Meanings

  1. (transitive) To make sparse; to remove some of a group of newly-planted plants in order to allow the remaining ones to grow unimpeded.
  2. (intransitive) To become sparse.
    • The numbers thin out the further we get from London, so I don't feel guilty when I remove my mask momentarily to scoff some of the snacks I'd bought at Marylebone. 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:
    • And later on, when the crowd thinned out / I was just about to do the same / She was standing there in back of my chair / Said to me, "Don't I know your name?" 1975, Bob Dylan, “Tangled Up in Blue”, in Blood on the Tracks:
    • “Abandon Starbucks!” screamed a member of the staff, and his colleagues immediately stopped making coffees or bagging muffins and ran for their lives “It seems to be thinning out a little, ” announced Mr. Stink 2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
thinning out Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
thinned out Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
thinned out Tense=Past lexicographic
thins out Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic

Relateds

prethin

Translations (29)

de vereinzeln (to make sparse) · pl przerzedzać się (to become sparse) · cs řídnout (to become sparse) · cs prořídnout (to become sparse) · bg разреждам се (to become sparse) · uk проріди́ти (to make sparse) · pl przerzedzić się (to become sparse) · fi harventua (to become sparse) · uk проріди́тися (to become sparse) · de ausdünnen (to make sparse) · uk розрі́джувати (to make sparse) · pl przerzedzić (to make sparse) · izh harveta (to become sparse) · es dispersar (to make sparse) · he דִּלֵּל (to make sparse) · fr éclaircir (to make sparse) · fr démarier (to make sparse) · wa asclairi (to make sparse) · fi harveta (to become sparse) · es dispersar (to become sparse) · wa treråyî (to make sparse) · cs protrhat (to make sparse) · fi harventaa (to make sparse) · bg разреждам (to make sparse) · pl przerzedzać (to make sparse) · uk розріди́ти (to make sparse) · uk прорі́джувати (to make sparse) · wa distrocler (to make sparse) · uk прорі́джуватися (to become sparse)