withered; withering
ˈwit͟h-riŋ,
ˈwi-t͟hə-
1
: to become dry and sapless
especially
: to shrivel from or as if from loss of bodily moisture
2
: to lose vitality, force, or freshness
public support for the bill is withering
1
: to cause to wither
2
: to make speechless or incapable of action : stun
… withered him with a look …—
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy L. SayersExamples of wither in a Sentence
Verb
The plants withered and died.
shortly after the moon landing, interest in the space program withered
Recent Examples on the Web
Rosa Lyster, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025
Those developments have led some to theorize that traditional coding-only jobs will wither with the rise of AI, and early evidence backs up those claims.
—Jared Perlo, NBC news, 27 Dec. 2025
Its unwillingness or inability to act in the face of the offensive brings home, more powerfully than anything else, just how much this branch of government has withered away in recent decades.
—Noah Feldman, Twin Cities, 24 Dec. 2025
Ahmed al-Jash’ami, a former farmer from Iraq’s central Babel province, recalls watching his father die heartbroken as dwindling water supplies caused their orchard to wither and turn barren.
—Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN Money, 21 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wither
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Verb
The sycamore’s tendency to flourish in places where plenty of other trees would wither and die might have been the reason that John Clayton, a nineteenth-century landowner, planted one in a gap along Hadrian’s Wall.
—Rosa Lyster, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025
Those developments have led some to theorize that traditional coding-only jobs will wither with the rise of AI, and early evidence backs up those claims.
—Jared Perlo, NBC news, 27 Dec. 2025
Its unwillingness or inability to act in the face of the offensive brings home, more powerfully than anything else, just how much this branch of government has withered away in recent decades.
—Noah Feldman, Twin Cities, 24 Dec. 2025
Ahmed al-Jash’ami, a former farmer from Iraq’s central Babel province, recalls watching his father die heartbroken as dwindling water supplies caused their orchard to wither and turn barren.
—Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN Money, 21 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wither
Cite this Entry
“Wither.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wither. Accessed 6 Jan. 2026.
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