wane

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“
Obedient to the moon he spent his date In course reciprocal, and had his fate Link'd to the mutual flowing of the seas, Yet (strange to think) his wane was his increase: His letters are deliver'd all, and gone, Only remains the superscription John Milton.

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Definitions (23)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. intransitive verb To decrease gradually in size, amount, intensity, or degree; decline.
  2. intransitive verb To exhibit a decreasing illuminated area from full moon to new moon.
  3. intransitive verb To approach an end.
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Examples (50)

  • The Progressive Party, if not dead, had ceased to be a real power in politics; but Progressivism, as an influence and an ideal, was surviving under other forms Probably the chief cause for this wane was the putting into operation, by President Wilson and the triumphant Democrats, of many of the Progressive suggestions which the Democratic Platform had also contained. —  Theodore Roosevelt; An Intimate Biography
  • Obedient to the moon he spent his date In course reciprocal, and had his fate Link'd to the mutual flowing of the seas, Yet (strange to think) his wane was his increase: His letters are deliver'd all, and gone, Only remains the superscription John Milton. —  The Book of Humorous Verse
  • U.S. energy demand continues to wane, according to the weekly EIA report. —  The Daily Sentinel: News
  • Duke being on the wane, the court was once more the scene of unseemly scandals and disorders. —  The Valley of Decision
  • A sinister fog at the wane -- at the change of the moon cometh forth —  The Poems of Henry Kendall With Biographical Note by Bertram Stevens
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

wane:   waned ·  waning ·  wanes
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English wanen, from Old English wanian; see euə- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English wanen, wanien, wonien, from Anglo-Saxon wanian, wonian, gewanian = OFries. wania, wonia = Old High German wanōn, wanen = Icelandic vana, de crease, wane; from the adjective, Anglo-Saxon wan = Old High German wan = Icelandic vanr = Goth, wans, wanting, de ficient (an adjective also appearing as a negative prefix: see wan-), = Sanskrit ūna, lacking, deficient, inferior; perhaps an orig. past participle of a root u, be empty, Zend ✓ u, be lacking, existing also in Greek ευνις, bereaved, German öde, desolate, etc. Cf. wan, want.Hence prob. waniand, wanion.
  2. from Middle English wane, from Anglo-Saxon wana = Icelandic vani, decrease, wane: see wane, v.
  3. Middle English, from Anglo-Saxon wan, deficient: see wan-, wan, and wane, v.
 

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/weɪn/
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