WITHER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Wither

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/wˈɪðər/ Listen

verb

Wither v. t.

1.

To cause to fade, and become dry. "The sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth."

2.

To cause to shrink, wrinkle, or decay, for want of animal moisture. "Age can not wither her." "Shot forth pernicious fire Among the accursed, that withered all their strength."

3.

To cause to languish, perish, or pass away; to blight; as, a reputation withered by calumny. "The passions and the cares that wither life."

Wither v. i. (past & past part. withered; pres. part. withering)

1.

To fade; to lose freshness; to become sapless; to become sapless; to dry or shrivel up. "Shall he hot pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither?"

2.

To lose or want animal moisture; to waste. "This is man, old, wrinkled, faded, withered." "There was a man which had his hand withered." "Now warm in love, now with'ring in the grave."

3.

To lose vigor or power; to languish; to pass away. "Names that must not wither." "States thrive or wither as moons wax and wane."

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Etymology of 'Wither'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wither" Quotes from Famous Books

... if he were perpetually on the point of gnashing his teeth. But do you notice how, three hundred miles beyond the end of telegraph cables and mail-boat lines, the haggard utilitarian lies of our civilisation wither and die, to be replaced by pure exercises of imagination, that have the futility, often the charm, and sometimes the deep hidden truthfulness, of works of art? Romance had singled Jim for its own—and that was the ...

— Lord Jim • Joseph Conrad

... of muscles controlled every neck the heads of all swung about, their eyes following where the accusers pointed, their ears twitching for the expected blast of denial and denunciation which would wither these mad and ...

— Sundry Accounts • Irvin S. Cobb

... seems that Jesus, who was gentle and kind, should pronounce a curse on this fig-tree, and cause it to wither away. Why did He do so? Because He wished to impress upon His disciples the terrible danger of unfruitfulness. If we are the disciples of Jesus, we must bear good fruit; we must be loving, kind, and gentle, and try, like Him, to be always ...

— Mother Stories from the New Testament • Anonymous

... field, having rooted up or cut down all that kept it from the eyes and admiration of the world. But after some continuance, it shall begin to lose the beauty it had; the storms of ambition shall beat her great boughs and branches one against another; her leaves shall fall off, her limbs wither, and a rabble of barbarous nations enter the ...

— A Book of English Prose - Part II, Arranged for Secondary and High Schools • Percy Lubbock

... upon his myriads, wept to think that in a hundred years not one of them would be left. Where will be these millions of to-day in a hundred years? But, further than that, let us ask, Where then will be the sum and outcome of their labour? If they wither away like summer grass, will not at least a result be left which those of a hundred years hence may be the better for? No, not one jot! There will not be any sum or outcome or result of this ceaseless labour and movement; it vanishes in the moment that it is done, and in a hundred years nothing ...

— The Story of My Heart • Richard Jefferies

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