watering down

verb

present participle of water down
as in diluting
to alter (something) for the worse with the addition of foreign or lower-grade substances watered down the cocktails while jacking up their prices

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of watering down But Reeves and Starmer faced criticism for some of their fiscal policies, such as increasing National Insurance — a kind of tax on employment — for businesses, and watering down welfare reforms to appease backbench lawmakers. — Chloe Taylor, CNBC, 21 July 2026 Asking for sportsbook revenue while simultaneously watering down the product and coddling rule-breakers with minor-league rehab is a terrible look. — Geoff Clark Outkick, FOXNews.com, 26 June 2026 These rules have already been subject to watering down proposals. — Neil Winton, Forbes.com, 20 June 2026 But the most basic reforms seem to require years of discussion and back-and-forth and watering down. — David Frum, The Atlantic, 17 June 2026 Dress the salad right before serving to prevent the melon and cucumbers from watering down the vinaigrette. — Kaitlyn Yarborough, Southern Living, 23 May 2026 But watering down safe Republican seats in a tough year for the incumbent party, could backfire, some have predicted. — Alexandra Glorioso, Miami Herald, 27 Apr. 2026 Name, image and likeness money is pulling guys with borderline first-round grades back to school, which is watering down the top of each class. — Nick Baumgardner, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2026 Trump blinked, pausing and watering down many of those tariffs in response to extreme market pressure. — Matt Egan, CNN Money, 2 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for watering down
  1. diluting
  2. loading
  3. cutting
  4. polluting
  5. thinning
  6. infecting
  7. poisoning
Verb
  • The next three drivers ranked outside the Chase — Ross Chastain (12th at Richmond), Brad Keselowski (26th) and Erik Jones (27th) — also lost ground, diluting the potential drama of a surprise qualifier.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 17 Aug. 2026
  • Too many founders resort to diluting their equity just to fund operational order fulfillment.
    — Chris Hale, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of diluting
Verb
  • The Sox right fielder walked on the next pitch, loading the bases with two outs in the 10th, but Tristan Peters grounded out to first to end the threat.
    — LaMond Pope, Chicago Tribune, 18 Aug. 2026
  • Lucas Erceg was picked to close but was yanked for Steven Cruz after loading the bases with no outs in 14 pitches.
    — PJ Green, Kansas City Star, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of loading
Verb
  • San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie livestreamed a ribbon-cutting ceremony early Thursday as the new Grocery Outlet store opened its doors.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Torrents overwhelmed infrastructure, cutting power to tens of thousands of homes, flooding about 170 houses and blocking roads, while a landslide hit Togane and muddy water inundated cars and railway tracks.
    — Mari Yamaguchi, Los Angeles Times, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of cutting
Verb
  • The only appropriate response to the industry’s rush to build costly, polluting gas plants at the sites of data centers is a pause in development and enactment of new policy guardrails, designed in close consultation with affected communities.
    — John Kostyack, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026
  • This large mass will translate into higher quantities of polluting propellant needed to loft these systems off Earth and a much larger amount of metals vaporizing in Earth's atmosphere during reentry.
    — Tereza Pultarova, Space.com, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of polluting
Verb
  • Nixing the law would allow for certain management practices, such as thinning forests to prevent wildfires and controlling insects, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in the same press release.
    — Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 18 Aug. 2026
  • Industrial production and exports tied to the global AI investment boom have helped cushion weak consumption and private investment, but July data suggest that support may be thinning.
    — Anniek Bao,Evelyn Cheng, CNBC, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of thinning
Verb
  • But the 16 bacteria-infecting viruses described on August 6 in Science were no ordinary specimens.
    — Elie Dolgin, IEEE Spectrum, 13 Aug. 2026
  • Only the 2014–16 Ebola epidemic in West Africa has been larger and deadlier, infecting more than 28,600 people and killing 11,325 across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
    — Nimi Princewill, CNN Money, 6 Aug. 2026
Definition of infecting
Verb
  • While the mines themselves trample landscapes, the mercury used in the process is poisoning communities.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Women in ancient Rome used toad secretions to murder their husbands; 16th-century Italian chemists laced salts with toad toxins for poisoning the food of enemies.
    — Kimon de Greef, Longreads, 4 Aug. 2026
Definition of poisoning

Browse Nearby Words

watering cans
watering down
watering hole
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Watering down.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/watering%20down. Accessed 20 Aug. 2026.

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