dwindle

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
12
Words With Friends
14
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/ˈdwɪn.dəl/(UK)

Definition of dwindle

4 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (intransitive)To decrease, shrink, diminish, reduce in size or intensity.
    “Their supplies began to dwindle after a week.”
    “Interest in the project slowly dwindled.”
    “dwindle away”
    “dwindle to nothing”
    “dwindle steadily”
See all 4 definitions

verb

  1. (intransitive)To decrease, shrink, diminish, reduce in size or intensity.
    “Their supplies began to dwindle after a week.”
    “Interest in the project slowly dwindled.”
    “dwindle away”
    “dwindle to nothing”
    “dwindle steadily”
  2. (figuratively, intransitive)To fall away in quality; degenerate, sink.
    “VVearie Seu'nights, nine times nine, / Shall he dvvindle, peake, and pine: […]”
    “Religious Societies, though begun with excellent Intention, and by Perſons of true Piety, have dwindled into factious Clubs; […]”
    “The flattery of his friends began to dwindle into simple approbation.”
    “The larger the empire, the more dwindles the mind of the citizen.”
    “[I]nfected tulips are weakened by the viruses that cause the very patterns and swirls that fascinated horticulturists and investors in the first place. Such bulbs tend to dwindle away instead of fattening up and producing offsets.”
  3. (transitive)To lessen; to bring low.
    “Our drooping days are dwindled down to nought.”
  4. To break up or disperse.
    “there were only five hundred foot and three hundred horse left with him, for the blocking of Plymouth; the rest were dwindled away”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Frequentative form of dwine, from Middle English dwinen, from Old English dwīnan (“to waste away”), from Proto-West Germanic *dwīnan, from Proto-Germanic *dwīnaną. It is equivalent to dwine + -le, akin to Old Norse dvena, dvína, Dutch verdwijnen (“to disappear, dwindle”).

Anagrams of dwindle

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