wither

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“
So you have a bad time before you, my Godfrey waiting for the big fat plum far away which you cannot see or touch and much less taste, while the other nice plums fall into different hands, or wither--wither, waiting to be eaten At end, when you get your big, fat plum, just as you set your teeth in it, oh!

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. intransitive verb To dry up or shrivel from or as if from loss of moisture.
  2. intransitive verb To lose freshness; droop.
  3. transitive verb To cause to shrivel or fade.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

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Examples (50)

  • Our pain ripples back up through her as our limbs wither, and we now understand the twisted artifacts in the Justice building. —  F ;SF; - vol 090 issue 06 - June 1996
  • Already the moss was beginning to wither, as it was dependent on the thorough moisture of the rain and fog. —  Rings of Ice
  • And then I shall bring forth fruit in season; my leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever I do shall prosper.' —  Catherine Booth: A Sketch
  • Away from me, or you must go with me--wither you know not--into the Land of Three Dimensions Fool! —  Flatland: a romance of many dimensions
  • Yet it does bud and wither, and every bough and leaf of it is there, by fixed eternal laws; not a Sir Thomas Lucy but comes at the hour fit for him. —  Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

gnarled ·  bony ·  wrinkle ·  frail ·  bare ·  thin ·  spin-dry ·  lifeless ·  hairy ·  char ·  brittle ·  fleshy

Used in the same contextWord Family

wither:   withered ·  withering
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. Alteration of Middle English widderen, perhaps variant of wederen, to weather, from weder, weather; see weather.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English wither, from Anglo-Saxon wither (in comp.), again, against, = Old Saxon withar. wither, withere = OFries. wither, withir, wether, weder, weer = Low German wedder = Dutch weder, wēer = Old High German widar, Middle High German wider, German wider, against, wieder, again, = Icelandic vithr = Swedish Danish veder = Gothic (Moesogothic) withra, against, toward; comparative of with: see with. This adverb was once of considerable importance in Middle English as a prefix, but it is obsolete in modern English, withernam being merely archaic, and withersshins dialectal. The instances of wither as preposition, adjective, and noun, given as occurring in Middle English, are rare, and in all of them wither is rather to be taken as a prefix. Cf. withers.
  2. Middle English witheren, from Anglo-Saxon witheriān (= Middle Dutch wederen = Old High German widarōn), go against, resist, from wither, against: see wither, adv.
  3. With change of d to th, as in the orig. noun weather; from Middle English widder, wydderen, widren, wederen, from Anglo-Saxon wedrian, expose to the weather, = Middle High German witern, be such and such weather; cf. German verwittern, be spoiled by the weather, decay, etc., wittern, be such and such weather, breathe, blow, storm; cf. weather, v., a doublet of wither.
 

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/ˈwɪðər/
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