Atrophy

Quick meaning: Atrophy is a noun meaning (pathology) A reduction in the functionality of an organ caused by disease, injury or lack of use.

Meaning

(pathology) A reduction in the functionality of an organ caused by disease, injury or lack of use.

More Meanings

1. (intransitive) To wither or waste away.
2. (transitive) To cause to waste away or become abortive; to starve or weaken.

Example Sentences

Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any sense of compassion

Boy. I love summer vacation. I can feel my brain beginning to atrophy already.

The M10 highway looks normal enough at the southern limits of St. Petersburg, but then, with a jolt, it begins to atrophy. For the next 430 miles the surface of the highway, while paved, varies from corduroy to jaw-rattling patchwork.

Now that chatbots are going the way of Google—moving from the miraculous to the taken-for-granted—the anxiety has shifted, too, from apocalypse to atrophy. Teachers, especially, say they’re beginning to see the rot. The term for it is unlovely but not inapt: de-skilling.

Word Forms

• atrophies
• atrophying
• atrophied

Synonyms for atrophy

Depending on context, synonyms include withering, wasting.

Antonyms for atrophy

Common opposites include hypertrophy, strengthen.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include wasting, withering, shrinkage, contraction, shrinking, decline.

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