atrophy

plural atrophies

1. countableuncountablemedicineA reduction in the functionality of an organ caused by disease, injury or lack of use.First known use early 17th c.

   Now that chatbots are going the way of Google—moving from the miraculous to the taken-for-granted—the anxiety has shifted, too, from apocalypse to atrophy. Teachers, especially, say they’re beginning to see the rot. The term for it is unlovely but not inapt: de-skilling.

   2025 October 26, Kwame Anthony Appiah, “The Age of De-Skilling”, in The Atlantic

present singular third person atrophies · participle present atrophying · participle past atrophied · past atrophied

1. intransitiveTo wither or waste away.First known use early 18th c.

   Boy. I love summer vacation. I can feel my brain beginning to atrophy already.

   1987 June 13, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic)

   1 more example

   The M10 highway looks normal enough at the southern limits of St. Petersburg, but then, with a jolt, it begins to atrophy. For the next 430 miles the surface of the highway, while paved, varies from corduroy to jaw-rattling patchwork.

   2013 October 13, Ellen Barry, “The Russia Left Behind: A journey through a heartland on the slow road to ruin”, in The New York Times

2. transitiveTo cause to waste away or become abortive; to starve or weaken.

   Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any sense of compassion

   2001, “Schism” (04:35-05:10 from the start), in Lateralus, performed by Tool