depletion

Borrowed from Latin depletio, depletionem, from depleō.

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈpliːʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

depletion (countable and uncountable, plural depletions)

1. The act of depleting, or the state of being depleted; exhaustion.
   • 1954 May, John W. Grant, “A Railway Requiem”, in Railway Magazine, page 351:

     The Great Northern 4-4-0s have all vanished, and there has been some depletion in the ranks of North British "Glens" and "Scotts."

2. The consumption of a resource faster than it can be replenished.
3. (medicine, archaic) The act of relieving congestion or plethora, by purging, blood-letting, or reduction of the system by abstinence.
4. (accounting, mining, timber industry, oil industry) gradual expense or use of natural resources over time.

• deplete

• diplotene