atrophy

Yet if human folly predates the decline of reading, the atrophy of this splendid activity is no less lamentable.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

One reason employers are hesitant to hire those who have been out of the workforce for a prolonged period of time is that they believe skills atrophy.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026

"We found there was less brain atrophy and less tau accumulation, which was very exciting to see."

From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026

Human brains function on a pretty strict use-it-or-lose-it policy: When they’re not engaged, they start to atrophy.

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

He massaged Shin’s arms and legs so that his muscles would not atrophy.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden

Like any skill, it atrophies when we outsource the work.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026

"When you get machines thinking for you, your brain just atrophies."

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2025

As we age, our brain gradually atrophies, losing nerve cells and connections and this can lead to a decline in brain function.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 6, 2024

If astrophysicists don’t take big, new and different swings at dark matter, the search will only stagnate until it atrophies.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 5, 2023

This law, indicated by Aristotle, but clearly outlined by Goethe in 1807, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire in 1818, underlies the physiological atrophies and hypertrophies which play such a part in degeneracy.

From Degeneracy Its Causes, Signs and Results by Eugene S. Talbot

Why have our in-person fighting skills atrophied so much?

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

This misperception carries profound consequences and is currently rippling through our world, eroding trust, deepening isolation and creating a social environment in which empathy is swiftly becoming an atrophied muscle in desperate need of exercise.

From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026

Global trade boomed and the U.S. economy led the growth, even as U.S. shipbuilding atrophied and the Navy dropped from 7,000 ships at the close of World War II to around 300 today.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026

Social skills and conversational ease have stiffened and atrophied.

From New York Times ● May 14, 2024

His senses must have been blunted and atrophied with money and the getting of it.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

But the Mayor’s Fund had been atrophying for years, with its donations shrinking to a fraction of what it raised under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

After exhausting holistic options, he saw a doctor who said one of his vocal cords was atrophying.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 23, 2024

"After two years, part of my brain was atrophying," one said.

From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2024

The work the body does against gravity to stay upright and move around keeps muscles from atrophying and stimulates bone growth.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 19, 2023

Over the weeks that followed he languished in the hospital, arms curled grotesquely at his sides, muscles atrophying, his weight dropping below 80 pounds.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer