Ténuo, ténuas, tenuâre. Virg.To make small, thin, or slender: to make leane or feeble.Adipes tenuare. Quint. Carmen tenuare. Proper. To make a verse in a slder stile.Curæ tenuant corpus.Ouid.Care maketh leane the bodie.Silices tenuãtur ab vsu. On. Flintons are worn with vse.Vomer tenuatur ab vsu.Ouid.Is worne.Macie vultum tenuare. Propert. To make thin. &c.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
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 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.