Word.ws English Dictionary

withering

Syllables: wi·ther·ing/ˈwɪðəɹɪŋ/

withering adjective: tending to destroy, devastate, overwhelm, or cause complete destruction. Also the present participle and gerund of wither.

Adjective

withering (comparative more withering, superlative most withering)

  1. Tending 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
  2. Diminishing rapidly.
    • The playboy seemed oblivious to his withering fortune as he continued in his decadent lifestyle.
    • Go—ask of nature in thy walk.
      The rose-bud, dying on its stalk,
      The fading grass—the withering tree,
      Are emblems of thy fate and thee.1815, Lydia Sigourney, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, Procrastination, page 9
  3. Tending 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.

Noun

withering (plural witherings)

  1. The process by which something withers.
    • Spiritual witherings and decayings are opposite to the word of God.1839, William Jenkyn, James Sherman, An Exposition Upon the Epistle of Jude, page 274

Proper noun capitalized: Withering

Withering (plural Witherings)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

withering is also the present participle and gerund of wither.

Examples of withering in a sentence

  • 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...
  • 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:

All 19 example sentences with withering

Forms of withering

Adjective
comparativemore withering
superlativemost withering
Noun
pluralwitherings
Proper noun
pluralWitherings

Origin of withering

From wither + -ing.

Words formed from withering

Phrases with withering

Questions about withering

What does withering mean?
Withering means tending to destroy, devastate, overwhelm, or cause complete destruction.
How do you use withering in a sentence?
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.
What part of speech is withering?
Withering can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce withering?
Withering is pronounced /ˈwɪðəɹɪŋ/.

Words near withering in the dictionary

  1. witherer
  2. witherers
  3. witherest
  4. withereth
  5. Witherian
  6. withering
  7. withering abalone syndrome
  8. withering away
  9. withering away of the state
  10. withering on the vine
  11. witheringly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: withering (page history and authors); Withering (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-withering.wav.

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