Detero, déteris, pen. cor. detríui, detrîtum pen. prod. detérere. To bruse: to beate out as graine is with threshing or treading: to weare: to impaire and hurt. vt, Deterere frumenta. Col. To thresh or treade out graine.Detritum milium. Col. Brused. Deterere calces.Plaut.To rubbe one against the other.Manibus deterere tabellas. Prope. To weare with handling.Vsu aliquid deteri Quin.To be worne away with vse. Deterere Destruere, Corrumpere. Plin. To diminish, hurte, or impaire.Deterere laudes alicuius. Hora. To impaire or diminish hys prarse. Famæ alicuius deterere, pro Detrahere. Sil. To diminish.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
dē-tĕro, trīvi, trītum, 3, v. a., to rub away, to wear away, to wear out (mostly poet. and in post-Aug. prose; not in Cic. or Caes.). I. Prop.: strataque jam volgi pedibus detrita viarum saxea, Lucr. 1, 315: a catena collum detritum cani, Phaedr. 3, 7, 16; so, vestem usu, Plin. 8, 48, 73, 191; cf.: detrita tegmina, Tac. A. 1, 18: aurum usu, Plin. 33, 3, 19: pedes (viă longă), Tib. 1, 9, 16: frumenta,
, Plaut. Merc. 5, 2, 111.—II.Trop., to diminish in force, to lessen, weaken, impair: laudes Caesaris culpă ingeni, Hor. Od. 1, 6, 12: aliquid velut usu ipso, Quint. 2, 4, 7: fulgorem, id. 10, 5, 16: si quid ardoris ac ferociae miles habuit, deteritur, etc., Tac. H. 2, 76 fin.: ab alio genere vitae detriti jam, Gell. 15, 30, 1: quantum detritum est famae, Sil. 7, 247: detrita bellis Suessa, id. 8, 399: detereret sibi multa Lucilius,
would polish his verses
, Hor. S. 1, 10, 69 (cf. just before, v. 65, limatior).—Absol.: nimia cura deterit magis quam emendat, Plin. Ep. 9, 35 fin.— Hence, dētrītus, a, um, P. a., worn out, trite, hackneyed (for which in Cic. contritus): illa in agendis causis jam detrita, Quint. 8, 6, 51.