wither
verb
Simple meaning
To shrivel, droop or dry up.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
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IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwɪðɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
intransitive
To shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water.
transitive
To cause to shrivel or dry up.
intransitive
To become helpless due to emotion.
intransitivefigurative
To lose vigour or power; to languish; to waste away; to pass away.
transitive
To make helpless due to emotion.
To go against, resist; oppose.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The highest part of the back at the base of the neck of various animals especially draft animals.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Despite anything to the contrary (usually preceding a concession).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A chronic inflammation of the withers of a horse.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.