See Also: wither(medicine)
wither(1)(dictionary)
wither(2)(dictionary)
wither(3)(dictionary)
wither(4)(dictionary)
wither(dictionary)

wither(4) (iou)



wither verb. LME.
[App. var. of WEATHER verb, ult. differentiated for certain senses.]
I. verb intrans.
Of a plant: become dry and shrivel up. Freq. in fig. context. LME.
wither on the vine fig. perish for lack of attention.
K. Lines No rain fell, and the grain withered in the parched ground.
b. Of a crop: become dry. Now only in tea manufacture, (of tea leaves) become dry before roasting (cf. sense 4b below). E16.
Of the body or its parts, a person, etc.: become shrunken from age, disease, etc.; lose vigour or robustness. (Foll. by away.) LME.
B. Mason His physique fell away to a shrunken body and a leg withered from poliomyelitis. R. Fuller We're all growing old and withering away.
fig. Cease to flourish; languish, decline, fall into decay. (Foll. by away.) E16.
D. C. Peattie The desert days open, blaze, and wither one after another. S. Middleton None of these women had gone out of her way, and thus temptation withered.
b. spec. In Marxist theory: wither away, (of the State) disappear as no longer being necessary after the dictatorship of the proletariat has effected the necessary changes in society. E20.
II. verb trans.
a. Air (clothes). M16-E17.
b. Dry (tea leaves) before roasting. M18.
Cause (a plant, flower, etc.) to dry up and shrivel. M16.
E. Clodd The fierce heat that withered the approaching harvest.
Cause (the body or its powers) to shrink, become wasted or decayed, or lose freshness. L16.
J. Dyer Enfeebling vice Withers each nerve.
fig. Cause to decline; blight, affect injuriously. Now chiefly hyperbol., mortify (a person) with a look of extreme contempt. L16.
B. Bainbridge Whenever the poor man asks her opinion..she withers him with her eyes. D. W. Winnicott Sarcasm in a teacher has withered the growing point of many a child's learning.
withered ppl adjective that has withered or lost its vitality; arch. (of a limb) paralysed: L15.
witheredness noun M16.
witherer noun (rare) a person who or thing which withers E19.