From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Attrition \At*tri"tion\, noun [L. attritio: cf. F. attrition.]
1. The act of rubbing together; friction; the act of wearing by friction, or by rubbing substances together; abrasion.
Effected by attrition of the inward stomach. --Arbuthnot.
2. The state of being worn. --Johnson.
3. (Theol.) Grief for sin arising only from fear of punishment or feelings of shame. See {Contrition}. --Wallis.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: erosion by friction [syn: {abrasion}, {corrasion}, {detrition}]
2: the wearing down of rock particles by friction due to water or wind or ice [syn: {grinding}, {abrasion}, {detrition}]
3: sorrow for sin arising from fear of damnation [syn: {contrition}, {contriteness}]
4: a wearing down to weaken or destroy; "a war of attrition"
5: the act of rubbing together; wearing something down by friction
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
150 Moby Thesaurus words for "attrition": abatement, ablation, abrasion, abrasive, absorption, apologies, assimilation, atomization, attenuation, ayenbite of inwit, beating, bitterness, blunting, brecciation, buffing, burning up, burnishing, chafe, chafing, comminution, consumption, contriteness, contrition, corrosion, crumbling, crushing, curtailment, cut, cutting, damping, deadening, debilitation, decrease, decrement, deliquescence, depletion, depreciation, derogation, detraction, detrition, devitalization, digestion, dilution, diminution, dip, disintegration, disparagement, dissipation, dissolution, drain, dressing, dulling, eating up, effemination, enervation, enfeeblement, erasure, erosion, evisceration, exhaustion, expending, expenditure, extenuation, extraction, fatigue, filing, finishing, fragmentation, fretting, galling, granulation, granulization, grating, grazing, grief, grinding, impairment, impoverishment, inanition, ingestion, languishment, lessening, levigation, limation, loss, mashing, mitigation, penance, penitently, polishing, pounding, powdering, rasping, reduction, regret, regretfulness, regrets, regretting, relaxation, remission, remorse, remorse of conscience, remorsefulness, repentance, repining, retraction, retrenchment, rubbing away, rue, ruth, sandblasting, sanding, scouring, scrape, scraping, scratch, scratching, scrub, scrubbing, scuff, shame, shamefacedness, shamefastness, shamefulness, shining, shortening, shredding, shrinkage, slackening, smashing, smoothing, softening, sorriness, sorrow, spending, squandering, thinning, trituration, truncation, using up, wastage, waste, wastefulness, wasting away, weakening, wear, wear and tear, wearing away, wearing down, wistfulness
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Let's see what we can do if we put our heads together.
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