Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A rubbing away or wearing down by friction.
- noun A gradual reduction in number or strength because of stress or military action.
- noun A gradual reduction in personnel or membership because of resignation, retirement, or death, often viewed in contrast to reduction from layoffs.
- noun Roman Catholic Church Repentance for sin motivated by fear of punishment rather than by love of God.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The rubbing of one thing against another; mutual friction: as, the abrasion of coins by attrition.
- noun The act of wearing away by rubbing; the state of being worn down or smoothed by friction; abrasion.
- noun In theology, imperfect contrition or repentance, with real detestation of sin, and a true purpose of amendment, arising from those supernatural motives of faith which are lower than charity, or the true love of God for his own infinite perfections.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act of rubbing together; friction; the act of wearing by friction, or by rubbing substances together; abrasion.
- noun The state of being worn.
- noun (Theol.) Grief for sin arising only from fear of punishment or feelings of shame. See
Contrition .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun wearing or grinding down by
friction - noun the
gradual reduction in a tangible or intangible resource due to causes that are passive and do not involve productive use of the resource. - noun A gradual, natural reduction in
membership orpersonnel , as through retirement, resignation, ordeath - noun sciences The loss of
participants during anexperiment - noun theology Imperfect
contrition or remorse
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun sorrow for sin arising from fear of damnation
- noun a wearing down to weaken or destroy
- noun the wearing down of rock particles by friction due to water or wind or ice
- noun erosion by friction
- noun the act of rubbing together; wearing something down by friction
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word attrition.
Examples
-
Almost all of the attrition is among students with very low grades.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Affirmative Action in Law Schools, Pt. 2 2004
-
For instance; that after the long course of a most lewd and flagitious life, a man may be reconciled to God, and have his sins forgiven at the last gasp, upon confession of them to the priest, with that imperfect degree of contrition for them, which they call attrition, together with the absolution of the priest.
The Works of Dr. John Tillotson, Late Archbishop of Canterbury. Vol. 04. 1630-1694 1820
-
Some of this attrition is due to financial factors indeed, but a majority of the attrition is due to other factors such as poor academic preparation.
Taxes and Market Time, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
-
All the attrition is difficult to get a read on, particularly when one of the best players to come through McDermott's program, Wesley Johnson, is starring at Syracuse.
Big 12 Conference 2010
-
Perhaps more subtly considered the "JPII priest" attrition is simply a recent example of the perennial struggle for the celibate priest in his affectivity and relationships, in his heart and most especially in his spousal and paternal love.
Pope John Paul II 2009
-
Leadership attrition is a major problem for any type of army.
-
Perhaps more subtly considered the "JPII priest" attrition is simply a recent example of the perennial struggle for the celibate priest in his affectivity and relationships, in his heart and most especially in his spousal and paternal love.
-
Men and women have near-equal NIH funding success at all stages of their careers, which makes it very unlikely that female attrition is due to negative selection from NIH grant-funding decisions.
Archive 2008-12-01 Peggy 2008
-
Men and women have near-equal NIH funding success at all stages of their careers, which makes it very unlikely that female attrition is due to negative selection from NIH grant-funding decisions.
You Didn't Think You Could Win, Did You? Peggy 2008
-
Cry ‚ Äôs of success when attrition is allowed to meet the sacrifice that year.
100000232338334 commented on the word attrition
"Bartenders at Fangtasia didn't tend to last long. Eric and Pam always tried to hire someone colorful--an exotic bartender drew in the human tourists who came by the busloads to take a walk on the wild side--and in this they were successful. But somehow the job had acquired a high attrition rate."-Dead as a Doornail, by Charlaine Harris
May 19, 2011