tenuo, 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). Lit.: assiduo vomer tenuatur ab usu, Ov. P. 2, 7, 43: hoc (tempus) tenuat dentem aratri, id. Tr. 4, 6, 13: sol matutinum aera spissum et umidum ortu suo tenuat, Sen. Q. N. 5, 3, 2; so, aera, 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, Aeraque 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.

— 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.