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  1. dwindle love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To become gradually less until little remains.
  2. v. To cause to dwindle. See Synonyms at decrease.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. 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.
  2. To degenerate; sink; fall away in quality.
  3. Synonyms Diminish, etc. (see decrease); attenuate, become attenuated, decline, fall off, fall away.
  4. n. Gradual decline or decrease; a wasting away; degeneracy; decline.

Wiktionary

  1. v. intransitive To decrease, shrink, diminish, reduce in size.
  2. v. intransitive, figuratively To fall away in quality; degenerate, sink.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To diminish; to become less; to shrink; to waste or consume away; to become degenerate; to fall away.
  2. v. To make less; to bring low.
  3. v. rare To break; to disperse.
  4. n. rare The process of dwindling; dwindlement; decline; degeneracy.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. become smaller or lose substance

Etymologies

  1. Diminutive form of dwine, from Old English dwinan ("to waste away"), akin to Old Norse dvena/dvína (Danish tvine ("to pine away")). (Wiktionary)
  2. Frequentative of Middle English dwinen, to waste away, from Old English dwīnan, to shrink; see dheu-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (7)

Words with the same meaning

  1. diminish
  1. shrink
  1. break
  1. disperse
  1. dwindlement
  1. decline
  1. degeneracy

hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. diminish
  1. fall
  1. lessen
  1. decrease

rhymes (12)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Tindal
  2. Tindall
  1. Tyndall
  2. bindle
  1. brindle
  2. grindle
  1. kindle
  2. rekindle
  1. shindle
  2. spindle
  1. swindle
  2. windle

reverse dictionary (15)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. to fine
  2. fordwine
  3. atrophy
  1. dwindle
  2. shrivel
  3. peter
  1. trail
  2. drain
  3. tail
  1. shrink
  2. waste
  3. contract
  1. diminish
  2. languish
  3. sink

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Lists

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Comments

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  • 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

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‘dwindle’ has been looked up 3449 times, loved by 10 people, added to 79 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.