Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To lose brightness, loudness, or brilliance gradually; dim: The lights and music faded as we set sail from the harbor.
- v. To lose freshness; wither: summer flowers that had faded.
- v. To lose strength or vitality; wane: youthful energy that had faded over the years.
- v. To disappear gradually; vanish: a hope that faded. See Synonyms at disappear.
- v. Sports To swerve from a straight course, especially in the direction of a slice.
- v. Football To move back from the line of scrimmage. Used of a quarterback.
- v. To cause to lose brightness, freshness, or strength: Exposure to sunlight has faded the carpet.
- v. Sports To hit (a golf ball, for instance) with a moderate, usually controlled slice.
- v. Games To meet the bet of (an opposing player) in dice.
- n. A gradual diminution or increase in the brightness or visibility of an image in cinema or television.
- n. A periodic reduction in the received strength of a radio transmission.
- n. Sports A moderate, usually controlled slice, as in golf.
- fade in To appear gradually.
- fade in To cause to appear or be heard gradually. Used of a cinematic or television image or of a sound.
- fade out To disappear gradually.
- fade out To cause to disappear gradually. Used of a cinematic or television image or of a sound.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pale; wan; faded.
- Withered; faded, as a plant.
- Insipid; tasteless; uninteresting.
- To become pale or wan; lose freshness, color, brightness, or distinctness; tend from a stronger or brighter color to a more faint shade of the same color, or from visibleness to invisibility; become weak in hue or tint or in outline; have the distinctive or characteristic features disappear gradually; grow dim or indistinct to the sight.
- To wither, as a plant; in general, to gradually lose strength, health, or vigor; decay; perish or disappear gradually.
- Synonyms To droop, languish.
- To cause to lose brightness or freshness of color; cause to lose distinctness to the sight.
- To cause to wither; wear away; deprive of freshness or vigor.
- Strong; bold; doughty.
Wiktionary
- adj. archaic Weak; insipid; tasteless; commonplace.
- n. golf A golf shot that (for the right-handed player) curves intentionally to the right. See slice, hook, draw.
- n. A haircut where the hair is short or shaved on the sides of the head and longer on top. See also high-top fade and low fade.
- v. intransitive To become fade; to grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.
- v. intransitive To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color.
- v. intransitive To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.
- v. transitive To cause to fade.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. rare Weak; insipid; tasteless; commonplace.
- v. To become fade; to grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.
- v. To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color.
- v. To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.
- v. To cause to wither; to deprive of freshness or vigor; to wear away.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a golf shot that curves to the right for a right-handed golfer
- v. lose freshness, vigor, or vitality
- v. disappear gradually
- v. become less clearly visible or distinguishable; disappear gradually or seemingly
- n. gradually ceasing to be visible
- v. become feeble
Etymologies
- From Old French fader, from fade. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English faden, from Old French fader, from fade, faded, probably from Vulgar Latin *fatidus, alteration of Latin fatuus, insipid. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Bernard Berrian, the Vikings' lone deep threat and a Frazier pet project, is giving new meaning to the term "fade route.”
“A couple of them went in places that I never would have chosen myself including what I think the very best thing is, which is the title fade, that piano piece sitting right over the opening credits.”
“I'd just as soon let this title fade into obscurity along with the screwy novel it is based on.”
“As they fade from the masturbatory male dream, their exoticism paled by the proof of proper, grown-up ladies who rarely have the look of someone yearning for the touch of a boy with back acne, lesbians are appearing more and more in the fantasies (occasionally sexy, more often domestic) of straight women.”
“Somehow I suspect that Kyochon will NOT live up to the hype, and quickly fade from the foodblogger-topic-of-the-moment.”
“Here lakeside I have some rain fade using the Star Choice dish but it is a lot less than with my 4 foot in diameter pointing at 119 W and my 2 meter pointing at 110 W (which are as Tim knows are satellites used by DISH) (This post was edited by johanson on Mar 2, 2009, 1: 37 PM)”
“He uses that anecdote to begin describing Stone's fast fade from the limelight and virtual disappearance from the world of mainstream journalism at the beginning of the 1950s.”
“If he wins, though, he may fade from the national radar, much as Arnold Schwarzenegger did when he completed the transition from celebrity candidate to workaday governor.”
The Washington Post: The oversimplified coverage of 'tough-talking' Rahm Emanuel
“Zac Posen has been creating some very interesting looks that I'm loving right now and a classic designer that will never fade is Ralph Lauren, I continue to appreciate his creations year after year.”
The Huffington Post: Talking Denver Fashion With Neiman Marcus's Stylist Of The Year
“Hey, remember Tom Green, the man who catapulted to fame in the late 1990s with his eponymous MTV show, starred in cult films like Road Trip and Freddy Got Fingered, married (and divorced) Drew Barrymore, and televised his battle with testicular cancer, only to fade from the spotlight just as quickly as he'd landed in it?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fade’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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Fads
With bows of great respect to Connie Willis, author of "Bellwether" and other wonderful books.
Hula-Hoop, bungee-jumping, hair-bobbing, pogs, jitterbug, jogging, mesmerism, Ouija board, miniature golf, The Old Curiosity..., Harry Potter, line dancing and 271 more...
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Noteworthy Words
Here I have in mind a list of words that could be spelled with only the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, and G--and thus could also be played as a tune on the piano.
face, ace, bag, cage, bad, fad, fade, fee, gee, beg, fed, deaf and 98 more...
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Film
jidaigeki, samurai, Kurosawa, action, comedy, drama, Bergman, Buñuel, surreal, rotoscope, melodrama, Cinerama and 333 more...
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gangster
random gangster lingo and street slang with extra absurdities.
( open list, randomness )
related:
http://www....swagga, chinga, slams, blitzy, earf, manor, code name, rekkid, weight, feather, kong, swisher and 323 more...
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Words from books I've read
These are some words I didn't know when I read and now I want to know!
Scribble, Newfangled, swift, swathe, budget, obstreperous, trickle, rank, covetous, scratch, hunch, dodge and 179 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
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suzyg's Words
brandish, recompence, shopping, dichotomy, paradigm, reverse osmosis, anyway, despite, drunk, degenerate, insipid, grateful and 438 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Cellar Door
It's the way the letters combine to form an beautiful whole and the way its sound tickles the ear.
capricious, sigh, jest, psyche, elf, wither, languish, wane, fade, caustic, pithy, epicene and 121 more...
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nuwerdna's Words
smegma, defenestration, nubile, zeitgeist, stochastic, ergodic, stability, maudlin, recursion, aversion, agent, set and 239 more...
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amsstory's list
pretentious, delectable, egomaniacal, lionize, titillate, nebulous, obfuscation, ostentatious, wry, precipice, ethereal, echo and 150 more...
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eloise's Words
embrace, perfect, imagine, dance, water, color, echo, hollow, sorrow, beauty, impossible, violet and 438 more...
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noele's list
vertiginous, verdant, mellifluous, serpentine, verdigris, traject, amaranthine, luminous, phosphorescent, temerous, cerulean, shapeshifter and 531 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fade.

abigail A "fade" or "faded" men's hairstyle is one that starts short and becomes progressively longer. In a hi-top fade the hair on the sides is cut off or kept very short and the hair on the top of the head is very long, similar to a flattop. In a low fade style, hair on the top is kept shorter. Apr 13, 2011