WITHERING • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Withering

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/wˈɪðərɪŋ/ 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."

adjective

Withering adj. Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade.

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Etymology of 'Withering'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Withering" Quotes from Famous Books

... their clothing; they carry it about with them, and any one who gets a whiff of it gets some idea of the breath of a common lodging-house. And its moral breath has its effect, too! Woe to all that is fresh and fair, young and hopeful, that comes within its withering influence. Farewell! a long farewell to honour, truth and self-respect, for the hot breath of a common lodging-house will blast those and every other good quality in young people of either sex that inhale it. Its breath comes upon them, and lo! they become ...

— London's Underworld • Thomas Holmes

... action by the impulse of private malice. They occasioned mortality of greater or less extent in man and beast. They blighted the opening prospect of a plentiful harvest. They covered the heavens with clouds, and sent abroad withering and malignant blasts. They undermined the health of those who were so unfortunate as to incur their animosity, and caused them to waste away gradually with incurable disease. They were notorious two or ...

— Lives of the Necromancers • William Godwin

... pale, but he was cool and undisturbed—ah, how much more so than his trembling sacrifice! I placed before him the condemning paper. It was that only that he cared to see. He looked at once to the result, and then, without a word, he turned his withering eye upon me. ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 • Various

... the De Republica the younger Africanus says: "Although to the wise the consciousness of noble deeds is a most ample reward of virtue, yet this divine virtue craves, not indeed statues that need lead to hold them to their pedestals, nor yet triumphs graced by withering laurels, but rewards of firmer structure and more enduring green." "What are these?" says Laelius. Scipio replies by telling his dream. The time of the vision was near the beginning of the Third Punic War, ...

— De Amicitia, Scipio's Dream • Marcus Tullius Ciceronis

... in England. Two per cent. of the soldiers get a fortnight's leave of absence and a free pass; and there is joy in peasant homes over peasant charcoal pans. The dusky shades of evening are stealing over olive grove and withering vineyard, and every house lights up its tiny oil lamp, and every image of the Virgin is illuminated with a taper. In Eija, near Cordova, an image or portrait of the Virgin and the Babe new-born, hangs in well-nigh every room in every house. And why? Because the beautiful ...

— Christmas: Its Origin and Associations - Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries • William Francis Dawson

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