Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use withering in a sentence

19 example sentences · adjective, noun

Withering means tending to destroy, devastate, overwhelm, or cause complete destruction. Example: “The D-Day troops came under withering fire.”

Examples of withering by meaning

adjectiveTending to destroy, devastate, overwhelm, or cause complete destruction.

  • The D-Day troops came under withering fire.
  • Before the clearing had been half crossed the Arabs opened up a withering fire from behind the palisade.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 135
  • Shockingly, under such a withering combined barrage, the Japanese destroyer promptly exploded and sank in short order, before even having had a chance to unleash her Long Lances.2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 12:55 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from...

adjectiveDiminishing rapidly.

  • The playboy seemed oblivious to his withering fortune as he continued in his decadent lifestyle.

adjectiveTending to make someone feel small; scornful in a mortifying way.

  • Jane's mother in law gave her a withering look.
  • He made withering remarks about his adversary.
  • It is a very serious thing that there be Worlds and Suns, and yet most withering is the laughter of Māna-Yood-Sushāī.1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC

More sentences with withering

  • With one withering glance, she could whittle my father, who was a big man, down to size.2012, Sonny Collins, Anasazi Dreams: In Search of Coyote People, page 75. From the entry whittle down to size
  • The Westminster Gazette referred to 'the withering touch of deadhanded departmentalism".1995, Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume 1, →ISBN. From the entry deadhanded
  • They had anticipated the “withering away” of a state that has only become more controlling and omnipotent.1989, L[eften] S[tavros] Stavrianos, Lifelines from Our Past: A New World History, New York: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, page 225. From the entry classless
  • And” (with a withering glance at Harriet’s furs) “no better than you should be, I’ll be bound.”1937, Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman's Honeymoon. From the entry no better than one ought to be
  • Thus the development of reason is accompanied by no inner blight or withering.1907, Margaret McMillan, Labour and Childhood, page 120. From the entry train
  • The show is worth watching for Agnes van Rhijn’s withering propriety and Bertha Russell’s dresses and millinery alone.2025 August 10, Molly Jong-Fast, “Donald Trump, Julian Fellowes and the Gilded Age Finale”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New…. From the entry millinery
  • These herdings and stabbings and stranglings occurred five hundred years ago, before America felt the withering touch of Europe.2010, Inga Clendinnen, Reading the Holocaust. From the entry herding
  • Her laugh wasn't cruel in tone, but it cut through Husk like a scalpel, withering his wick even further.2009, Ira Robbins, “Parthenogenesis”, in Kick It till It Breaks, [New York, N.Y.]: Trouser Press, →ISBN, page 130. From the entry wick
  • Both the anticoercive (meaning libertarian) and coercive (meaning Marxist) utopians share the goal of the withering away of the state.2002, Peter Augustine Lawler, Aliens in America: The Strange Truth about Our Souls, page xxv. From the entry anticoercive
  • He goes on, "The most feminine error during the period of foretalk is to subject her partner to withering cross-examination."1970, Medical aspects of human sexuality. From the entry foretalk
  • Johnson, in future I’d like you to leave your ghetto blaster at home, please.” She cast a withering look at the giant radio.1980 May, Leonore Fleischer, Fame: A Novel, page 63. From the entry ghetto blaster
  • I darted my eyes across the table, caught his, and stabbed him with one of those withering knifelike glances that only the descendants of the great can inflict.1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major. From the entry knifelike

Meaning of withering

  1. adjective Tending to destroy, devastate, overwhelm, or cause complete destruction.
  2. adjective Diminishing rapidly.
  3. adjective Tending to make someone feel small; scornful in a mortifying way.

Full definition of withering

Questions about withering in a sentence

How do you use withering in a sentence?
Withering is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “The D-Day troops came under withering fire.”
What is a short sentence with withering?
“He made withering remarks about his adversary.”
What does withering mean?
Withering means tending to destroy, devastate, overwhelm, or cause complete destruction.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: withering (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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