For without some Addition to the Money, tis not to be suppos'd next years Export can be equal to the last: It will lessen as Money has lessen'd; a part of the People then imploy'd being now idle; nor for want of Inclination to work, or for want of Imployers, but for want of Money to imploy them with.英文原著 · 《Money and Trade Considered》
The old man grunted, resuming his whittling busily. ``Hain' much use,'' he complained. ``Cain' eat nuff'm 'lessen it all gruelly. Man cain' eat nuff'm 'lessen he got teef. Genesis, di'n' I hyuh you tellin' dis white gemmun take caih his teef--not bite on no i'on?''英文原著 · 《Seventeen》
Then they kissed Perseus, and wept over him, and he leapt down the mountain, and went on, lessening and lessening like a sea-gull, away and out to sea.英文原著 · 《The Heroes》
Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolifick dyet, there are more children born in Roman Catholick countries about nine months after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of Popish infants, is at least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of Papists among us.英文原著 · 《A Modest Proposal》
For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of Papists, with whom we are yearly over-run, being the principal breeders of the nation, as well as our most dangerous enemies, and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good Protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country, than stay at home and pay tithes against their conscience to an episcopal curate.英文原著 · 《A Modest Proposal》
The marvel was not lessened when I began to study geography, and comprehended that the world is round. Could it really be that we had that endless "Atlantic Ocean" to look at from our window, to dance along the edge of, to wade into or bathe in, if we chose? The map of the world became more interesting to me than any of the story-books. In my fanciful explorations I out-traveled Captain Cook, the only voyager around the world with whose name my childhood was familiar.英文原著 · 《A New England Girlhood》
You can help by lessening her duties, it's the only way I can see.美剧 · 《Downton Abbey》