Your chancellor declines on a pension; your minister attenuates on a grant; the feet of your great rogues may be gone from the treasury benches, but they have their little fingers in the treasury.
"Paul Clifford, Volume 6."
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
It is precisely the same as Fred, who twists, jerks, distorts and attenuates the English language in his magazine work, in order to have bread and ice-cream and jelly cake for his two blooming youngsters.
"The Window at the White Cat"
Mary Roberts Rinehart