Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To become limp or flaccid; droop.
- intransitive verb To feel or exhibit the effects of fatigue or exhaustion; weaken markedly.
- intransitive verb To cause to droop or lose freshness.
- intransitive verb To deprive of energy or vigor; fatigue or exhaust.
- noun The action of wilting or the state of being wilted.
- noun Any of various plant diseases characterized by slow or rapid collapse of terminal shoots, branches, or entire plants.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To droop or fade, as plants or flowers when cut or plucked; wither.
- To become soft or languid; lose energy, pith, or strength.
- To cause to droop or become languid, as a plant; take the stiffness, strength, or vigor out. of; hence, to render limp and pithless; depress.
- The second person singular present indicative of will.
- noun A disease of plants which causes them to wilt: used only with a qualifying word indicative of the plant affected.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb Prov. Eng. & U. S. To begin to wither; to lose freshness and become flaccid, as a plant when exposed when exposed to drought, or to great heat in a dry day, or when separated from its root; to droop;. to wither.
- 2d pers. sing. of
will . - transitive verb Prov. Eng. U. S. To cause to begin to wither; to make flaccid, as a green plant.
- transitive verb Prov. Eng. & U. S. Hence, to cause to languish; to depress or destroy the vigor and energy of.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb archaic Second-person singular present tense of
will - verb intransitive To
droop or becomelimp andflaccid (as a dying leaf or flower). - verb intransitive To
fatigue ; to losestrength . - verb transitive To cause to
droop or becomelimp andflaccid (as a flower). - verb transitive To cause to
fatigue ; toexhaust . - noun The act of
wilting or the state of beingwilted . - noun Any of various
plant diseases characterized bywilting .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun causing to become limp or drooping
- verb lose strength
- verb become limp
- noun any plant disease characterized by drooping and shriveling; usually caused by parasites attacking the roots
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Still, a small army that will defend and hold their position in the heat of battle and not wilt is far better than a larger army of unreliable soldiers who will totally fail in the heat of battle.
Sooo… I guess we’re waiting on the press conferences, then. - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState 2009
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It is amazingly refreshing to reach over to your cooler, and pull out a bag of icy cold cucumbers when you're beginning to wilt from the heat.)
Archive 2008-08-01 Sarah Lenz 2008
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It is amazingly refreshing to reach over to your cooler, and pull out a bag of icy cold cucumbers when you're beginning to wilt from the heat.)
Alone in a Hotel Room with Sandwiches (somewhere in Wyoming) Sarah Lenz 2008
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I did a few work-in-progress shots on kitchen paper so the nori wouldn’t wilt from the moisture of the rice like in the last nori picture I did, Totoro:
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I did a few work-in-progress shots on kitchen paper so the nori wouldn’t wilt from the moisture of the rice like in the last nori picture I did, Totoro: [...]
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“Look at that man, Louis of Bourbon,” said De la Marck again, — “What terms wilt thou now offer, to escape this dangerous hour?”
Quentin Durward 2008
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Crowley said "Do as you wilt, that is the whole law."
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Wherefore heed not his speech, for we are thy Ministers, who endeavour for thy permanence, and if thou hearken not to our word, to whose word wilt thou hearken?
Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855
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"What terms wilt thou now offer, to escape this dangerous hour?"
Quentin Durward Walter Scott 1801
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I am worried about oak wilt, which is showing up near my home.
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