Word.ws English Dictionary

wither

Syllables: with·er/ˈwɪðə/US/ˈwɪðɚ/

wither verb: to shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water. Also the singular of withers.

Verb (1)

wither (third-person singular simple present withers, present participle withering, simple past and past participle withered)

  1. (intransitive) 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.
    Synonyms:
    sear
  2. (transitive) To cause to shrivel or dry up.
    • There was a man which had his hand withered.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 12:10
    • This is man, old, wrinkled, faded, withered.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    Synonyms:
    sear
  3. (figuratively, intransitive) To lose vigour or power; to languish; to waste away; to pass away.
    • names that must not wither1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. , London: John Murray,, (please specify the stanza number)
    • States thrive or wither as moons wax and wane.1782, William Cowper, Expostulation
  4. (intransitive) To become helpless due to emotion.
  5. (transitive) To make helpless due to emotion.

Adverb

wither (comparative more wither, superlative most wither)

  1. (in-compounds, obsolete) Against, in opposition to.

Verb (2)

wither (third-person singular simple present withers, present participle withering, simple past and past participle withered)

  1. To go against, resist; oppose.

Proper noun capitalized: Wither

Wither (plural Withers)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

wither is also the singular of withers.

wither meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Sanskrit and Arabic

wither in Tamil

(intransitive) shrivel, droop, dry up
வாடு vāṭu

wither in Malayalam

(intransitive) shrivel, droop, dry up
വാടുക vāṭuka
(transitive) to cause to shrivel or dry up
വാട്ടുക vāṭṭuka

wither in Sanskrit

(intransitive) shrivel, droop, dry up
शुष्यति śuṣyati

wither in Arabic

(intransitive) shrivel, droop, dry up
صَعَقَ ṣaʕaqa
More languagesFewer languages
wither in Persian
پژمردن pažmordan, افسرده کردن afsorde kardan, پژمرده کردن pažmorde kardan, افسرده شدن afsorde šodan
wither in Thai
เหี่ยว hìao, เหี่ยวแห้ง, เหี่ยวเฉา
wither in Vietnamese
héo, úa

Examples of wither in a sentence

  • The tomato plants had some kind of disease that left their leaves splotchy and their fruit withered.
  • The exposed workers had some kind of disease that left their skin splotchy and their faces withered.
  • Sam has beaten the Ender Dragon twice, killed the wither thrice, obtained netherite armor and built an obsidian fort in Minecraft.

All 40 example sentences with wither

Synonyms of wither

Forms of wither

Verb
third-person singular presentwithers
present participlewithering
past participlewithered
pastwithered
Noun
pluralwithers
Adverb
comparativemore wither
superlativemost wither
Proper noun
pluralWithers

Past tense of wither: withered

Origin of wither

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.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

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.

Words formed from wither

Words that rhyme with wither

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wither

What does wither mean?
Wither means to shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water.
What is wither in Tamil?
Wither in Tamil is வாடு (vāṭu). See Wither meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is wither?
Wither can be a verb, an adverb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce wither?
Wither is pronounced /ˈwɪðə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of wither?
The past tense of wither is withered.

Words near wither in the dictionary

  1. Withee
  2. Withees
  3. witheld
  4. Withem
  5. Withems
  6. wither
  7. wither away
  8. wither on the vine
  9. wither'd
  10. wither-
  11. wither-wrung

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wither (page history and authors); Wither (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-wither.wav.

Cite this entry: “wither.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wither. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.