wizen

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He sat on the edge of his chair, wizen, anxious, fidgety, loaded with objections, and ready to go off half-cocked.

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. intransitive verb To dry up; wither or shrivel.
  2. transitive verb To cause to wither, shrivel, or dry up.
  3. adjective Shriveled or dried up; withered: "There would be a day when his face would be wrinkled and wizen” (Oscar Wilde).

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • “Such is the way of the wizen,” he explained, holding up his arms. —  Witch Star.htm
  • All of them wore feathered war bonnets and had their faces painted Falling Water himself, a grim, wizen-featured old man, sat in the middle, smoking a tobacco pipe that was shaped like a tomahawk and adorned with coloured beads and feathers. —  Kiddie the Scout
  • Mr Dean was old and wizen, but he was unmarried and rich, so Miss Norsham thought it might be worth her while to play Vivien to this clerical Merlin. —  The Bishop's Secret
  • Then, at one o'clock next morning, he had hurriedly taken his bag and left for Dijon, where at noon he had been met in the Café de la Rotonde by a little wizen-faced old Frenchwoman in seedy black, who had travelled for two days and nights in order to meet him Together they had walked out on that unfrequented road beyond the Place Darcy, chatting confidentially as they went, the old lady speaking emphatically and with many gesticulations as they walked Truth to tell, this insignificant-looking person was a woman of many secrets. —  The Doctor of Pimlico Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime
  • The littlest, wizen-edest, tiniest little old woman as ever I set eyes on. —  Aunt Rachel
 

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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 (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English wisenen, from Old English wisnian.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Also weazen, and formerly wizzen, wisen; from Middle English *wisen, from Anglo-Saxon *wisen = Icelandic visinn = Swedish Danish vissen, withered, dried up; past participle of a lost verb, Anglo-Saxon as if *wīsan, dry up. Hence wizen, v.
  2. Also weazen, and formerly wizzen, wisen; from Middle English wisenen, from Anglo-Saxon wisnian, also forwisnian (= Icelandic visna = Swedish vissna = Danish visne), become dry, wither, from wisen, dried up, wizen.
 

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/ˈwɪzn/
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