extenuate

Meanings

1. To make (something) less dense, or thinner; also, to lower the viscosity of (something).
2. To make (someone or something) slender or thin; to emaciate, to waste.
3. To underestimate or understate the importance of (something); to underrate.
4. To diminish or seek to diminish the extent or severity of (a crime, guilt, a mistake, or something else negative) by making apologies or excuses; to palliate.
5. To beat or draw (a metal object, etc.) out so as to lessen the thickness.
6. To reduce the quality or quantity of (something); to lessen or weaken the force of (something).
7. To degrade (someone); to detract from (someone's qualities, reputation, etc.); to depreciate, to disparage.

1. Of a person: emaciated, wasted, weakened; of the body or part of it: atrophied, shrunken, withered.
2. Of a quality or thing: lessened, weakened.
3. Reduced to poverty; impoverished.

Etymology

From Middle English extenuat (“(medicine) made thin, emaciated”), from Latin extenuātus (“diminished, reduced, thinned”), perfect passive participle of extenuō (“to diminish, reduce, thin”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ex- (“out-, thoroughly”) + tenuō (“to enfeeble, weaken, wear down; to lessen, reduce; to make thin”) from tenuō, itself from tenuis (“fine, slender, thin; feeble, weak”) + -ō (first conjugation-verb forming suffix) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tenh₂- (“to extend, stretch; thin”)). Compare attenuate.