tenuo

tĕnŭo, āvi, ātum, 1, v. a. [tenuis], to make thin, slender, meagre, fine, rare; to dilute, rarefy, attenuate, etc. ( poet. and in post-Aug. prose; syn.: rarefacio, minuo).

I.

Lit.:

assiduo vomer tenuatur ab usu,

Ov. P. 2, 7, 43:

hoc (tempus) tenuat dentem aratri,

id. Tr. 4, 6, 13:

sol matutinum aëra spissum et umidum ortu suo tenuat,

Sen. Q. N. 5, 3, 2; so,

aëra,

to rarefy, Stat. Th. 1, 338:

auras,

Ov. M. 14, 399:

ipsā autem macie tenuant armenta volentes,

make lean, Verg. G. 3, 129:

tenuatum corpus,

Hor. S. 2, 2, 84:

corpus parvo victu tenuatum,

Tac. A. 15, 63:

exiles videor tenuatus in artus,

Prop. 2, 22 (3, 15), 21:

se in undas,

to dissolve into water, Ov. A. A. 1, 761; so,

artus in undas,

id. M. 15, 551; cf.:

tenuatus in auras, Aëraque umor abit,

id. ib. 15, 246:

vocis via est tenuata,

narrowed, contracted, id. ib. 14, 498:

flumina per multos rivos,

id. R. Am. 445:

chartam interpolatione,

Plin. 13, 12, 23, § 75:

adipes,

Quint. 2, 10, 6:

luna quater plenum tenuata retexuit orbem,

i. e. waning, Ov. M. 7, 531: ne ad [p. 1857] spadonum exilitatem vox nostra tenuetur, Quint. 11, 3, 19; so,

vocem,

id. 11, 3, 32.—

II.

Trop., to make small or trifling, to lessen, diminish, reduce, weaken, enfeeble:

utque meae famam tenuent oblivia culpae,

Ov. Tr. 3, 11, 65:

iram,

id. H. 20, 73:

vires amoris,

id. M. 5, 374:

magna modis tenuare parvis,

to lessen, degrade, Hor. C. 3, 3, 72:

gesta tanti viri enumerando,

Pac. Pan. ad Theod. 5; Claud. IV. Cons. Hon. 127:

dicite, quo pariter carmen tenuastis in antro,

have spun out a slight elegiac poem, Prop. 3 (4), 1, 5; cf.:

Maximo carmen tenuare tanto,

Stat. S. 4, 7, 2; v. tenuis, II. B.