Word.ws English Dictionary

wither on the vine

wither on the vine verb: to be unsuccessful due to neglect or inaction.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To be unsuccessful due to neglect or inaction.
    • Common Cause brought some Scottish intellectuals together, while Scotland United, an alliance of politicians, novelists and pop stars, held two successful rallies and proposed a multi-option referendum on the constitution. These two organizations soon withered on the vine.2006, Tom Devine, The Scottish Nation: A Modern History
    Synonyms:
    die on the vine

Synonyms of wither on the vine

Forms of wither on the vine

third-person singular presentwithers on the vine
present participlewithering on the vine
past participlewithered on the vine
pastwithered on the vine

Questions about wither on the vine

What does wither on the vine mean?
Wither on the vine means to be unsuccessful due to neglect or inaction.
What part of speech is wither on the vine?
Wither on the vine is a verb.
What is the past tense of wither on the vine?
The past tense of wither on the vine is withered on the vine.

Words near wither on the vine in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wither on the vine (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: En-au-wither on the vine.ogg.

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