whither

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I heard him hastily packing his modest wardrobe; and in fifteen minutes a tilbury had whirled him away--whither, Heaven only knows Leaf the Third I do not think his own mother would call him handsome; he is certainly not young, nor particularly brilliant; and yet there is a fascination about the proprietor of this rambling old house that gave me an unaccountable desire to become his tenant.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adverb To what place, result, or condition: Whither are we wandering?
  2. conjunction To which specified place or position: landed on the shores whither the storm had tossed them.
  3. conjunction To whatever place, result, or condition: "Whither thou goest, I will go” (Ruth 1:16).

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Examples (50)

  • This suspicion was deepened when it appeared that General Desdichado, as he called himself, had recently been seized with illness of such a severe character that it confined him entirely to his house, and even to his zenana--whither, of course, no intrusive visitor could follow him. —  The Path to Honour
  • They certainly were the toil of many centuries, and this perhaps before they thought of searching in the bowels of the earth for their ore--whither, however, they at length naturally pursued the veins, as they found them to be exhausted near the surface." —  The Forest of Dean An Historical and Descriptive Account
  • They certainly were the toil of many centuries, and this perhaps before they thought of searching in the bowels of the earth for their ore--whither, however they at length naturally pursued the veins, as they found them to be exhausted near the surface Such were the remains, as they existed in his day, of the original iron mines of this locality; and, except where modern operations have obliterated them, such they continue to the present time The fact of their presenting no trace of engineering skill, or of the use of any kind of machinery, is conclusive of their remote antiquity. —  Iron Making in the Olden Times as instanced in the Ancient Mines, Forges, and Furnaces of The Forest of Dean
  • Alas! whither are these reforming times gone? —  The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
  • But whither, and in what direction? —  Gaspar the Gaucho A Story of the Gran Chaco
 

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English hwider; see kwo- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Also dial, whidder, whuther, whudder, wither, wuther, wudder; origin obscure, perhaps orig. imitative. Compare wuther.
  2. Formerly also whether; with change of orig. d to th, as in hither, thither, father, etc.; from Middle English whider, whidir, whidur, whedir, hwider, whoder, woder, qvider, qvedur, hweder, whither, from Anglo-Saxon hwider, hwyder, to what place, whither, = Gothic (Moesogothic) hwadre, whither; from Teutonic *hwa, who, + comparative suffix -der, -ther: see who, and cf. whether and the correlative adverbs hither and thither.
 

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/ˈhwɪðər/
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