wilt
/wɪlt/
wilt verb: to droop or become limp and flaccid (as a dying leaf or flower). Also the second-person singular simple present indicative of will.
Verb
wilt (third-person singular simple present wilts, present participle wilting, simple past and past participle wilted)
- To droop or become limp and flaccid (as a dying leaf or flower).
- To fatigue; to lose strength; to flag.
- Not only were Jupp Heynckes' team pacey in attack but they were relentless in their pursuit of the ball once they had lost it, and as the game wore on they merely increased their dominance as City wilted in the Allianz Arena.2011 September 27, Alistair Magowan, “Bayern Munich 2 - 0 Man City”, in BBC Sport
- Caught between hails of 5″/38 fire and working Mk 14 torpedoes, on the one hand, and 16-inch batteries backed up by even more 5″/38 guns, on the other, the Japanese cruisers rapidly began to wilt under the sustained bombardment; firing off any remaining torpedoes they had at any targets that they...2021 May 5, Drachinifel, 40:43 from the start, in Battle of Samar - What if TF34 was there?, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2022
- To cause to droop or become limp and flaccid (as a flower).
- Peer pressure on both partners, even from within the lesbian community, can help to wilt a budding intergenerational romance.1982 February 6, Mary E. O'Shaughnessy, “Younger And Older Lesbians”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 28, page 4
- To cause to fatigue; to exhaust.
Noun
wilt (countable and uncountable, plural wilts)
Proper noun capitalized: Wilt
Wilt (plural Wilts)
- A surname.
Also used as
wilt is also the second-person singular simple present indicative of will.
wilt meaning in Malayalam, Nepali and Persian
wilt in Malayalam
- to droop
- വാടുക vāṭuka
- to fatigue
- വാടുക vāṭuka
- to cause to droop
- വാട്ടുക vāṭṭuka
- drooping
- വാട്ടം vāṭṭaṁ
wilt in Nepali
- to droop
- ओइलाउनु oilāunu
wilt in Persian
- to droop
- پلاسیدن palâsidan
Examples of wilt in a sentence
- The freshly picked flowers will wilt in a few days but for now are still fragrant.
- Plants wilt if they are not watered.
- The wilted flowers emerged droopingly from their vase.
Forms of wilt
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | wilts |
| present participle | wilting |
| past participle | wilted |
| past | wilted |
| Noun | |
| plural | wilts |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Wilts |
Origin of wilt
Recorded since 1691, probably an alteration of welk, itself from Middle English welken, presumed from Middle Dutch (preserved in modern inchoative verwelken) or Middle Low German welken (“to wither”), cognate with Old High German irwelhen (“to become soft”).
From Middle English wilt, from Old English wilt, from Proto-West Germanic *wilt, second person singular preterite-present of Proto-West Germanic *willjan. Cognate with Dutch wilt (“wilt”, second-person singular of willen), German willt (archaic second person singular indicative of wollen).
Words formed from wilt
Words that rhyme with wilt
7 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about wilt
- What does wilt mean?
- Wilt means to droop or become limp and flaccid (as a dying leaf or flower).
- What is wilt in Malayalam?
- Wilt in Malayalam is വാടുക (vāṭuka), വാട്ടം (vāṭṭaṁ), വാട്ടുക (vāṭṭuka). See Wilt meaning in Malayalam.
- What part of speech is wilt?
- Wilt can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce wilt?
- Wilt is pronounced /wɪlt/.
- What is the past tense of wilt?
- The past tense of wilt is wilted.
Words near wilt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wilt (page history and authors); Wilt (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wilt.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wilt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wilt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.