thinning

«thinning» in Mova's school dictionary: becoming thinner or less thick — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb form (present participle of «thin»: thin, thins, thinned, thinning); noun (thinning); adjective (thinning)

meaning for a pupil

1) Thinning means becoming thinner or less thick. tree →

2) Thinning hair is hair that is getting less, as some people's does when they get older. tree →

3) In gardening, thinning (out) means pulling up some young plants so the others have room to grow. tree →

4) A crowd or traffic that is thinning is getting smaller. tree →

sense in the lessons

In gardening and science lessons: thinning seedlings so each has space, light and water. In everyday life: «Grandad's hair is thinning». In geography: thinning ice in the Arctic, a thinning ozone layer. In paint and cooking: thinning paint or sauce with water.

examples

• Grandad's hair is thinning on top. tree →
• We are thinning the carrot seedlings so they can grow big. tree →
• The crowd was thinning after the concert. tree →
• Scientists worry about the thinning ice in the Arctic. tree →
• Add water for thinning the paint. tree →
• The trees were thinning as we got higher up the mountain. tree →
• Traffic is thinning now that rush hour is over. tree →

note

Double «n»: thin → thinning, thinned. Opposite: thickening. «Thinning out» in gardening is a careful job; you keep the strongest plants.

In the corpora

• Kind words soften the truth: wrinkles become "laughter lines" and a balding man is "thinning on top".
• "Thinning on top" is a polite way to say going bald.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «thinning» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.