Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To become gradually less until little remains.
- v. To cause to dwindle. See Synonyms at decrease.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To diminish; become less; shrink; waste or consume away: with by or from before the cause, and to, in, or into before the effect or result: as, the body dwindles by pining or consumption; an estate dwindles from waste; an object dwindles in size as it recedes from view; from its constant exposure, the regiment dwindled to a skeleton.
- To degenerate; sink; fall away in quality.
- Synonyms Diminish, etc. (see decrease); attenuate, become attenuated, decline, fall off, fall away.
- n. Gradual decline or decrease; a wasting away; degeneracy; decline.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To diminish; to become less; to shrink; to waste or consume away; to become degenerate; to fall away.
- v. To make less; to bring low.
- v. To break; to disperse.
- n. The process of dwindling; dwindlement; decline; degeneracy.
WordNet 3.0
- v. become smaller or lose substance
Etymologies
- Frequentative of Middle English dwinen, to waste away, from Old English dwīnan, to shrink; see dheu-2 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Kim, who claimed Olympic gold with world record scores, saw her hopes of defending her world title dwindle as she blamed foot problems for placing over ten points behind US teenager Mirai Nagasu who leads going into Saturday's free skating final.”
“Kim, who claimed Olympic gold with world record scores, blamed foot problems as she saw her hopes of defending her world title dwindle as she struggles over ten points behind Nagasu.”
“As we approach the decade mark next month, the readership around here at GitM continues to dwindle, which is primarily my fault for not updating as much as I'd like.”
“I watched the hippies become commodified and turned into hip capitalists — and the punks, you just watched them kind of dwindle away.”
“And we've been having our retirement savings put up and we've been using that, but it's begun to kind of dwindle away.”
“After all, the rampant power supply failures of the 2004 models seemed to kind of dwindle in my opinion, so perhaps they fixed this too ...”
“Peaks, valleys, and landmarks dwindle as we move forward and then reappear in a new perspective as our path winds on.”
“There is a good possibility that the Cavs fan base would dwindle down to what it was prior to the Cavs drafting Lebron James, which does not bode well for the organization.”
Five Things That Will Happen in Cleveland IF Lebron James Leaves | myFiveBest
“But GPC has struggled to make payments as Syria's cash reserves dwindle.”
The Wall Street Journal: Sanctions Push Shell to Depart Syrian Oil Fields
“Psychology Middle-Age Cutthroats The fire of competitiveness doesn't dwindle after age 25 along with brain mass and steroid levels, it appears.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dwindle’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Words for financial performance
Business and financial journalists tend to use the same tired few words to describe what happens to economies, markets and prices. Enough of grow, soar, boom, crash, bust, collapse and so on. Let's...
swell, inflate, dilate, mount, accrue, magnify, amplify, blossom, fatten up, dwindle, dissipate, shrivel and 31 more...
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10
aquatic, assert, avert, bleak, blithe, docile, dwindle, lethal, monitor, mutilate, nimble, plight and 3 more...
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[Open] Frequentative
“A verb which denotes the frequent occurrence or repetition of an action, as . . . waggle from wag.” — Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia.
Other examples include bobble (bob), bustle (b...dartle, stutter, agitate, dabble, waggle, aid, argue, daunt, expect, excite, espouse, dictate and 77 more...
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Lesson 10
aquatic, assert, avert, bleak, blithe, docile, dwindle, lethal, monitor, mutilate, nimble, plight and 3 more...
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My WordList
To learn more vocabulary
Incredible, abash, abase, vandalism, dwindle, unambiguously, prior
oroboros Fritter Aug 5, 2009
stpeter Only three? In what dwarfish world do the West Wing writers dwell? Have they been drinking too much dwale? And what kind of dwelling is the White House, anyway? Is the current dweller a mental dwarf (as some allege) or merely a dweeb? Etc. Dec 15, 2006
zanshin The West Wing dialogue is where I learned it. Dec 12, 2006
seanahan This fact was used for a bit of dialogue in The West Wing. Dec 12, 2006
zanshin There are only three words in the English language (I believe) that start with dw. Dwindle is but one. Dec 12, 2006