attrition

15th century, learned borrowing from Latin attritio (“a rubbing against”), from the verb attritus, past participle of atterere (“to wear”), from ad- (“to, towards”) +‎ terere (“to rub”).

• IPA^(key): /əˈtɹɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪʃən

attrition (countable and uncountable, plural attritions)

1. Grinding down or wearing away by friction.
2. The gradual reduction in a tangible or intangible resource due to causes that are passive and do not involve productive use of the resource.
3. (human resources) A gradual, natural reduction in membership or personnel, as through injury, incapacitation, retirement, resignation, or death.
4. (sciences) The loss of participants during an experiment.
5. (theology) Imperfect contrition or remorse.
6. (dentistry) The wearing of teeth due to their grinding.
7. (linguistics) The loss of a first or second language or a portion of that language.

• (employment reduction by natural causes): natural wastage

• accretion

• contrition

attrition (third-person singular simple present attritions, present participle attritioning, simple past and past participle attritioned)

1. (transitive) To grind or wear down through friction.

   Synonym: attrit

   attritioned teeth; attritioned rock

   • 1989, Shashi Tharoor, The Great Indian Novel‎, New York: Arcade, Book 9, p. 189:

     […] He took her in his arms
     And kissed her long and wetly,
     Till, attritioned by her charms,
     His will collapsed completely.

2. (transitive) To reduce the number of (jobs or workers) by not hiring new employees to fill positions that become vacant (often with out).[1]
   • 1973, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education, Hearings, page 186:

     […] but the heart of the health services in New York will have to attrition out some 3,000 to 5,000 jobs.

   • 1989, Herbert S. White, “The Future of Library and Information Science Education”, in Librarians and the Awakening from Innocence,‎, Boston: G.K. Hall, page 86:

     […] expenses can be cut, by attritioning faculty vacancies […]

3. (intransitive) To undergo a reduction in number.

   The cohort of one hundred students had attritioned to sixty by the end of secondary school.

• titration

From Latin attrītiōnem.

• IPA^(key): /a.tʁi.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

attrition f (plural attritions)

1. attrition

• guerre d’attrition

• “attrition”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.