Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DEC'RE-MENT, n. [L. decrementum, from decresco. See Decrease.]

1. Decrease; waste; the state of becoming less gradually. Rocks and mountains suffer a continual decrement. – Woodward.
2. The quantity lost by gradual diminution, or waste.
3. In heraldry, the wane of the moon.
4. In crystalography, a successive diminution of the lamene of molecules, applied to the faces of the primitive form, by which the secondary forms are supposed to be produced. – Haüy.