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I googled this too. The second definition fits better here

'reduced in force, effect, or physical thickness.'

I was only familiar with it in engineering terms, like “signal attenuation” over a long wire. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuation

It's an example of a basic mainstream word in a lang (French) not being well-known in another (English) It would be useful to find a website that aggregate words with such property because heuristically if one word is well known in one language, it's probably a useful one, and the fact that your language hasn't yet assimilated it is contingent.

speaking of the French, I bet the effects for nicotine are similar if not amplified. Say what you will about premature aging, but those coffee-and-cigarettes types cut a lean profile.

I’m guessing one factor in that is the appetite suppression effects of both. I heard a story (though perhaps apocryphal) about tobacco use increasing during the Great Depression specifically because of that side effect.