Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To dry up or shrivel from or as if from loss of moisture.
- v. To lose freshness; droop.
- v. To cause to shrivel or fade.
- v. To render speechless or incapable of action; stun: The teacher withered the noisy student with a glance.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Against; in opposition (to): chiefly in composition, as a prefix wither-, against.
- To go against; resist: oppose.
- To cause to become dry and fade; make sapless and shrunken.
- To cause to shrink, wrinkle, and decay for want of animal moisture; cause to lose bloom; shrivel; cause to have a wrinkled skin or shrunken muscles: as, time will wither the fairest face.
- To blight, injure, or destroy, as by some malign or baleful influence; affect fatally by malevolence; cause to perish or languish generally: as, to wither a person by a look or glance; reputations withered by scandal.
- To lose the sap or juice; dry and shrivel up; lose freshness and bloom; fade.
- To become dry and wrinkled, as from the loss or lack of animal moisture; lose pristine freshness, bloom, softness, smoothness, vigor, or the like, as from age or disease; decay.
- To decay generally; decline; languish; pass away.
- See wither, adverb
Wiktionary
- adv. Against, in opposition to.
- v. To go against, resist; oppose.
- v. To shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water
- v. To become helpless due to emotion
- v. To cause to shrivel or dry up
- v. To make helpless due to emotion
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To fade; to lose freshness; to become sapless; to become sapless; to dry or shrivel up.
- v. To lose or want animal moisture; to waste; to pin� away, as animal bodies.
- v. To lose vigor or power; to languish; to pass away.
- v. To cause to fade, and become dry.
- v. To cause to shrink, wrinkle, or decay, for want of animal moisture.
- v. To cause to languish, perish, or pass away; to blight.
WordNet 3.0
- v. wither, as with a loss of moisture
- v. lose freshness, vigor, or vitality
Etymologies
- Alteration of Middle English widderen, perhaps variant of wederen, to weather, from weder, weather; see weather.
Examples
“The pink and white impatiens that always seemed to wither from the DC heat looked alive and stood at attention as if they knew they had a special guest.”
“Judge me by your own rule, dear Donald," cried his wife, blandishingly kissing his forehead, "and you will not again wither the mother of your boy with such a look as I just now received.”
“If we fail here, our national prosperity will wither from the root; no statesmanship can save us long; no present strength can give us any guarantee for our future.”
“Vines will brown and wither, which is simply their way of saying, "We're done.”
“Did they become more dissatisfied from June to August, and that increased dissatisfaction caused their support to "wither"?”
“But I think as Karen, and I think as Eleanor said, we will have to narrow this issue because certainly if we don't, we're going to be criticized, and obviously, it may just kind of wither away.”
“Pretty sure that 'wither' is the equivalent of shriveling or drying up, i.e. "wither on the vine.”
“The first alternative is that death wins and faith is not worthy of the name; that is, we "wither" in the "desolating blast" of "God," "the Chastener" (ll.”
“The resulting gridlock will cause our democratic and government institutions to atrophy and wither - which is the point, of course.”
Lists
‘wither’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
slumry Any friend of Richard and Linda Thompson (or should I say Richard Thompson and Linda Thompson) is a friend of mine. . .and the guy who owns Wordie to boot! Thank you. Jun 17, 2007
john "This cruel country has driven me down
Teased me and lied, teased me and lied
I've only sad stories to tell to this town
My dreams have withered and died"
- Richard and Linda Thompson, "Withered and Died" Feb 20, 2007