Word.ws English Dictionary

wizened

/ˈwɪzənd/US/ˈwɪzənd/

wizened is the simple past and past participle of wizen.

Meaning of wizen

Verb

wizen (third-person singular simple present wizens, present participle wizening, simple past and past participle wizened)

  1. (intransitive) To wither; to become lean and wrinkled by shrinkage, as from age or illness.
    • After wizening with cold for an hour, we ran down to the hut for breakfast, rejoicing in having brought with us some portable soup ; and after a second visit to the summit, started at eight, when the day seemed already far advanced, along with the Bleiberg party, for the descent.1864, Josiah Gilbert Holland, G. C. Churchill, “The Morning Panorama”, in The Dolomite Mountains: Excursions through Tyrol, Carinthia, Carniola, & Friuli in 1861, 1862, & 1863, London: Longman et...
  2. (transitive) To make wizened.
    • […] Lea, archetype of the older woman, wise, but not yet wizened by age and experience.1981 January 26, Gerald Clarke, “Books: Field Flowers”, in Time

See all 3 meanings of wizen

Adjective

wizened (comparative more wizened, superlative most wizened)

  1. Withered; lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness.
    • "Ill-fard, crazy, crack-brained gowk, that she is!" exclaimed the housekeeper. . . "If it hadna been that I am mair than half a gentlewoman by my station, I wad hae tried my ten nails in the wizen'd hide o' her!"1816, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 8, in Old Mortality
    • He was old, too, wizened with age, and the hair on his face was gray.1907, Jack London, chapter 7, in Before Adam

Forms of wizened

comparativemore wizened
superlativemost wizened

Origin of wizened

From wizen + -ed. Inherited from Middle English wisenen, from Old English wisnian, weosnian, from Proto-Germanic *wisnōjaną. Cognate with Icelandic visna.

Words that rhyme with wizened

Questions about wizened

What does wizened mean?
Wizened means withered; lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness.
What is wizened the simple past and past participle of?
Wizened is the simple past and past participle of wizen.
What part of speech is wizened?
Wizened is an adjective.
How do you pronounce wizened?
Wizened is pronounced /ˈwɪzənd/ (UK).

Words near wizened in the dictionary

  1. wizardships
  2. wizardy
  3. wize
  4. wizely
  5. wizen
  6. wizened
  7. wizenedest
  8. wizenedness
  9. wizening
  10. wizens
  11. wizier

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wizened (page history and authors); wizen (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)-Vealhurl-wizened.wav.

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