Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Tending to overwhelm or destroy; devastating: withering sarcasm.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- The act or process denoted by the verb wither; specifically, in the manufacture of black tea, the operation of wilting the fresh leaf by exposing it, thinly spread, for some time to the air. Withering expels half the water from the leaf and fits it to endure rolling (which see) without breaking, also developing oxidation. See black tea.
- Blasting; blighting; scorching: as, a withering glance; a withering wind.
Wiktionary
- adj. Tending to destroy, devastate, overwhelm or cause complete destruction.
- adj. Diminishing rapidly.
- adj. Tending to make someone feel small; scornful in a mortifying way.
- v. present participle of wither.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. making light of
- adj. wreaking or capable of wreaking complete destruction
- n. any weakening or degeneration (especially through lack of use)
Examples
“Called Faaafu, or _withering_, from the withering of the yam vine and other plants, which become coloured "like the shells.”
“The venerable BBC -- Britain's state-funded television, radio and Internet media giant -- is set to sustain withering cuts of more than 16 percent of its budget, with even steeper reductions in government funding for the arts, including London museums and theaters.”
The Washington Post: Britain plans $131 billion in spending cuts by 2015
“He described the ceremony, which he felt rewarded box-office appeal over artistry, in withering terms:”
“(And I state that with the utmost in withering sarcasm, because I've never seen a self-proclaimed "values voter" ever care about the public failure of private virtue in a "family-values" candidate.”
“I am not a timid man, and I am fairly saavy – even got some book learnin – but after a 15 minute withering from the lawyer I was left wondering if this fictional show wasn’t a bit too close to the real thing.”
“Every time I think of it, I recall a withering Siskel reviewing it on TV in his last couple months of life and it breaks my heart.”
“In a ruling that can only be called withering, district Judge Daniel Hovland contrasted "incidental and unintended" deaths during "legal, commercially-useful activity" with "hunting and poaching.”
“Bobbie afterwards described as withering glances of gloomy despair.”
“Or do you get the sense that perhaps this was not -- I mean, for example, landing in, you know, this isolated valley and coming under what was described as withering fire, was this something they were ready for?”
“Augusta regarded me with what could only be called a withering glare.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘withering’.
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
Go over
mollify, obstinate, obviate, occlude, onerous, obscure, paragon, pedantic, perfunctory, placate, placid, prodigal and 364 more...
-
Dean Koontz Life Expectancy
Words I'm learning or investigating that I found by reading Life Expectancy (not all words are in the book).
chutzpah, luminous, torchieres, dunderheaded, inane, lummox, fox-trot, rumba, cha-cha, tango, swing, flub and 37 more...
-
pusadolfo's list
wicked, sycophant, zephyr, callipygian, ubiquitous, superfluous, halcyon, conundrum, perspicacious, acute, virtuous, ludicrous and 7 more...
-
the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
-
Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
-
Wordwild's Delights
Delightful words to read and use
plangent, ribald, titubant, sidereal, pelagic, improvident, dolorous, parlous, baleful, precatory, pied, mephitic and 247 more...
-
stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
-
supplementary
for enhancement of any English test
consanguineous, worldly, naiveté, enshroud, pernicious, prerogative, traitor, fledgling, vengeance, provision, furnish, quarrel and 94 more...
-
MEC3 Lesson 142
launch, rudeness, hostility, incivility, nastiness, unkindness, occur, crusade, well-meaning, fail, disguise, dish up and 18 more...
-
must employ on more frequent occasions
These words I know, I just haven't used them in a while. Time to bring them back into vogue.
questionable, mishap, hectic, prone, departure, retrieve, elsewhere, insurmountable, distraught, immeasurable, potent, ravenous and 76 more...
-
pricejosephd's list
withering, finical, lope, bromide, cachet, catatonic, coadjutor, laconically, limn, exonerate, illusory, farcical and 43 more...
-
Juliana's Words
flounder, scathing, withering, nip, spume, joss, swaddling clothes
-
W
Tweets
Looking for tweets for withering.
seanahan I like the usage, "when she detected my arousal, her stern look caused my withering." Apr 18, 2007
reesetee SoG, I know a school counselor who owns a similar expression to use around misbehaving children (usually in restaurants rather than in school, however). ;-) Apr 18, 2007
sonofgroucho My wife is a school teacher. Her withering look is a major class control tool. Apr 18, 2007