1548 T. Cooper Bibliotheca Eliotæ (rev. ed.) Debilitatio, a weakenyng, or makyng faynte.

c1550 Disc. Common Weal Eng. (1893) 21 Yet youe knowe we labour with oure myndes, more to the weaknynge of the same then by anie other bodyly exercise we can doe.

a1568 R. Ascham Scholemaster (1570) ii. f. 55 To the great weakning euen at this day of Christes Chirch in England.

1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan i. xii. 59 All which causes of the weakening of mens faith, do manifestly appear in the Examples following.

1674 R. Godfrey Var. Injuries in Physick 72 What with the weakennings of this fit, twice bleeding an Issue, often vomitting, and oftner purging; I was every year as duly as autumn came, laid up with a continual Fever.

1748 B. Robins & R. Walter Voy. round World by Anson i. x. 100 The diminishing and weakening of our crew by deaths and sickness.

1869 J. Peile Introd. Greek & Lat. Etymol. 124 Here we have cases of pure weakening—the substitution of a weaker for a stronger sound.

1874 A. J. Ellis On Early Eng. Pronunc. IV. iv. 1270 Weakening consists, according to Grimm, in ‘an unaccountable diminishing of vowel content’.

1876 P. G. Tait Lect. Recent Adv. in Physical Sci. iv. 86 The efficiency of the engine is directly proportional to the weakening of the current.

1886 W. Jago Chem. Wheat 315 The rate at which weakening goes on during panification.

1901 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 2 Feb. 263/1 The opening can be enlarged and then resutured without causing any weakening in the lower part of the abdominal wall.

1545 Visct. Lisle in Hooker Life Sir P. Carew (1857) 130 Which wilbe a great weakening to the navye, yf any thing in the meane tyme shall happen.

1663 B. Gerbier Counsel to Builders 18 If Doores and Windowes..were as wide as they are high; it must through necessity be a weakening to a Building.

1703 R. Neve City & Countrey Purchaser 7 All Openings are Weaknings.

1744 M. Bishop Life Matthew Bishop 208 This was a great weakening to us,..for we were environed round on all sides by our Enemies, [etc.].

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) iii. ix. sig. Nn2^v You see we both doo feele The weakning worke of Times for euer-whirling wheele.

1694 E. Phillips tr. J. Milton Lett. of State 240 To our great grief, we have beheld the Protestant Princes..more and more at weakning variance among themselves.

1746 P. Francis tr. Horace Art of Poetry 558 The weakening Joys of Wine and Love.

1811 J. Austen Sense & Sensibility III. x. 203 Marianne's illness, though weakening in its kind, had not been long enough to make her recovery slow. View more context for this quotation

1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xx. 230 All weakening measures were therefore contra-indicated.

1866 F. M. Müller Sanskrit Gram. 290 Changed..before weakening terminations beginning with consonants.

1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VII. 595 A diagnosis easily explained by the weakening influence of influenza.