Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Botany Withering but not falling off.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Withering; fading; decaying.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Bot.) Withering without falling off; fading; decaying.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective botany, of an organ Withered, but still attached.
  • adjective mycology Able to revive when moistened.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin marcēscēns, marcēscent-, past participle of marcēscere, inchoative of marcēre, to wither.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin marcescens, present participle of marcescere

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Examples

  • Tremulous took the place of a brother's name, and yesterday, when he blanked on the cities where he grew up, he learned the meanings of lambent and marcescent.

    A Word A Day Gita M. Smith 2011

  • “I, with my tremulous legs and marcescent arms, still love the garden's lambent light.”

    A Word A Day Gita M. Smith 2011

  • "But, " she answered, -granting that Mon Cul is a remarkable creature, that he is the elder statesman among monkeys, that his marcescent eyelids have opened upon sights and splendors about which the most romantic among us only dream, granting that, do not all wild animals have dignity?

    Another Roadside Attraction Robbins, Tom 1971

  • These brown and tan, dead-looking marcescent leaves cling to branches until newly emerging growth pushes them off in spring.

    ScrippsNews - current events, culture, commentary, community 2008

Comments

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  • When Eros has had his vernal fling

    The blossom wilts but still will cling.

    That bloom senescent

    Will droop marcescent,

    Abiding the Winter in dreams of Spring.

    February 28, 2015