Adjacent Words

Withering definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

WITHERING, ppr. Fading; becoming dry.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: wreaking or capable of wreaking complete destruction; "possessing annihilative power"; "a devastating hurricane"; "the guns opened a withering fire" [syn: annihilative, annihilating, devastating, withering]
2: making light of; "afire with annihilating invective"; "a devastating portrait of human folly"; "to compliments inflated I've a withering reply"- W.S.Gilbert [syn: annihilating, devastating, withering] n
1: any weakening or degeneration (especially through lack of use) [syn: atrophy, withering]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1579 acting or serving to cut down or destroy ; devastating <a withering fire from the enemy> <a withering rebuke> • witheringly adverb

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Wither With"er, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Withered; p. pr. & vb. n. Withering.] [OE. wideren; probably the same word as wederen to weather (see Weather, v. & n.); or cf. G. verwittern to decay, to be weather-beaten, Lith. vysti to wither.] 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? --Ezek. xvii. 9. 2. To lose or want animal moisture; to waste; to pin? away, as animal bodies. This is man, old, wrinkled, faded, withered. --Shak. There was a man which had his hand withered. --Matt. xii. 10. Now warm in love, now with'ring in the grave. --Dryden. 3. To lose vigor or power; to languish; to pass away. ``Names that must not wither.'' --Byron. States thrive or wither as moons wax and wane. --Cowper.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Withering With"er*ing, a. Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade. -- With"er*ing*ly, adv.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

A withering look or remark is very critical, and is intended to make someone feel ashamed or stupid. Deborah Jane's mother gave her a withering look... ADJ: usu ADJ n

Moby Thesaurus

Sanforizing, acerb, acerbate, acerbic, acid, acidic, acidulent, acidulous, acrid, acrimonious, air-drying, anhydration, arrogant, atrophy, attenuation, baneful, biting, bitter, calamitous, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, caustic, clannish, cliquish, coming apart, consuming, consumption, consumptive, contemptuous, contumelious, corroding, corrosive, cracking, crumbling, cutting, deadly, decadent, declining, degenerate, dehumidification, dehydration, demolishing, demolitionary, depredatory, desiccation, desolating, destroying, destructive, deteriorating, devastating, disastrous, disdainful, disintegrating, doomful, drainage, draining, drooping, drying, drying up, dwindling, ebbing, effete, emaceration, emaciation, evaporation, exclusive, fading, failing, falling, fatal, fateful, flagging, fragmenting, fratricidal, going to pieces, haughty, incisive, insolation, internecine, keen, languishing, marcescence, marcescent, mordacious, mordant, mummification, nihilist, nihilistic, parching, penetrating, piercing, pining, preshrinkage, ravaging, regressive, retrograde, retrogressive, ruining, ruinous, scathing, scorching, scornful, searing, self-destructive, sharp, shrinkage, shrinking, shriveling, sinking, sliding, slipping, slumping, sneering, sniffy, snobbish, snobby, snooty, snotty, stabbing, stinging, subsiding, subversionary, subversive, suicidal, supercilious, tabetic, tart, thinning, toploftical, toplofty, trenchant, vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic, waning, wastage, waste, wasteful, wasting, wilting, worsening