wither.
To shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water.
Meaning & usage
To shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water.
The flowers began to wither in the hot sun without enough water.
She watched as the old tree slowly withered with time.
To cause to shrivel or dry up.
To lose vigour or power; to languish; to waste away; to pass away.
To become helpless due to emotion.
To make helpless due to emotion.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English widren, wydderen (“to dry up, shrivel”), related to or perhaps an alteration of Middle English wederen (“to expose to weather”), from Old English wederian (“to expose to weather, exhibit a change of weather”). Cognates From Proto-Germanic: Dutch verwederen, Dutch verweren (“to erode by weather”), German verwittern, wittern (“to be ruined by weather; to erode”), Swedish vittra (“wither”). More at weather.
Against, in opposition to.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English wither, from Old English wiþer (“again, against”, adverb in compounds), from Proto-West Germanic *wiþr (“against, toward”). Cognates From Proto-Germanic: Low German wedder (“against”), Dutch weer (“again, back”), German wider (“against, contrary to”), German wieder (“again”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌸𐍂𐌰 (wiþra), Old Norse viðr. More at with.
To go against, resist; oppose.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English witheren, from Old English wiþerian (“to resist, oppose, struggle against”). Cognates From Proto-Germanic: Middle Dutch wideren, Old High German widarōn.
singular of withers (“part of the back of a four-legged animal that is between the shoulder blades”)
Where this word comes from
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.