From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishatrophyat‧ro‧phy /ˈætrəfi/ verb (atrophied, atrophying, atrophies) [intransitive, transitive] MIif a part of the body atrophies or is atrophied, it becomes weak because of lack of use or lack of blood therapy to prevent the leg muscles from atrophying —atrophy noun [uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
atrophy• In the end, in the final few days, the Labour campaign atrophied.• Indeed, in most we find it's atrophied.• Something in her that had, at first, revolted in anger and frustration at her own helplessness, now shrivelled and atrophied.• The muscles in her eyes have not atrophied.• His muscles had atrophied after the surgery.• Whatever character or vision he might have had atrophied along the way.• What had begun with good will was atrophying for the want of language to nourish it.• A gregarious single woman in her mid-thirties, she came to me feeling atrophied in her position with a major insurance company.• The skills needed are mostly those which our schooling found useless and it has atrophied them without irreparably damaging them.Origin atrophy (1600-1700) Late Latin atrophia “becoming smaller or weaker”, from Greek, from atrophos “badly fed”, from trephein “to feed” 