withered, ppl. a.
(ˈwɪðəd)
Forms: 5–6 wyddred (Sc. 5 wydderit, 5–6 widderit), 6 wydred, widdered, wydderad, wyddurde, (wedred, Sc. vidthrid), wyth(e)red, withred (wethered), 6–7 witherd, 6– wither'd, withered.
[f. wither v.2 + -ed1.]
1. Of a plant, fruit, etc.: Shrivelled or shrunken through lack of moisture, and so deprived of its natural colour, freshness, or bloom; hence, of fields, or stretches of country, and gen.: Dried up, arid.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace viii. 1037 Thar awld bulwerk I se off wydderyt ayk. c 1480 Henryson Two Mice 222 Thir widderit peis and nuttis,..Will brek my teith. ― Fox, Wolf, & Husb. xix, It will not win ȝow worth ane widderit neip. 1508 Fisher 7 Penit. Ps. cii. Wks. (1876) 148 Wedred grasse or hey. 1549 Compl. Scot. vii. 70 The vidthrid barran feildis. a 1560 Becon Jewel of Joy Pref., Wks. 1564 II. 2 A pece of grosse smokye bacon or saulte withered byefe. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. xxi. 110 Manye desartes, sandye, wythered, vnfruitefull. 1609 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 463 Wither'd roots. 1637 Rutherford Lett., to M. Mowat 7 Sept. (1671) 166 Our Lord..shall water with his dew the withered hill of mount Zion in Scotland. 1682 Dryden & Lee Dk. Guise i. i, To the bare Commons of the wither'd Field. 1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4777/4 A tall thin Man, with withered Hair. 1781 Cowper Conversat. 51 Wither'd stumps disgrace the sylvan scene. 1813 Scott Trierm. i. v, The wither'd leaves, That drop when no winds blow. 1861 Mrs. Browning Nature's Remorses x, Withered immortelles, long ago cut. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 676 But narrow breadth..Of wither'd holt or tilth. |
2. Of men and animals: Physically shrunken, shrivelled, wasted, or decayed; deprived of animal vitality or vigour.
| a 1500–34 Cov. Corpus Christi Pl. i. 839 Sey ye, wyddurde wyvis, whydder are ye a-wey? 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxix. (Percy Soc.) 143 An olde wydred wiche. 1526 Tindale John v. 3 A greate multitude off sicke folke, off blynde, halt, and wyddered. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 242 A withered Hermite, fiue-score winters worne. 1641 Milton Animadv. xiii. Wks. 1851 III. 233 They may as well sue for Nunneries, that they may have some convenient stowage for their wither'd daughters. 1700 Rowe Amb. Step-Mother iii. i, Marks which Years set on the wither'd Sage. 1868 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 421 A poor withered skeleton of humanity. |
b. Of the body, or parts of it: Shrivelled or shrunken, esp. by the wasting of disease or age. Formerly, and now colloq. or dial., often applied to a paralysed limb.
| 1513 [see wearish a. 2]. 1526 Tindale Mark iii. 1 There was a man which had a widdred honde. 1697 Dryden æneis v. 644 Take the last Gift my wither'd Arms can yield. 1795–6 Wordsw. Borderers ii. 890 Twice did I spring to grasp his withered throat. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. Introd. 3 His wither'd cheek, and tresses gray. 1813 J. Thomson Lect. Inflam. 539 The part affected became at first insensible and cold, and, in the progress of the disorder, dry, hard, and withered. 1877 Dowden Shaks. Primer vi. 79 So..fierce a human energy as that of Richard concentrated within one withered and distorted body. 1920 H. G. Wells Outl. Hist. 552/2 The figure of the new monarch [William II of Germany]..with a withered left arm ingeniously minimized. |
3. fig. in immaterial sense: Deprived of or having lost vigour, freshness, or ‘bloom’; shrunken and decayed; † formerly sometimes, reduced to poverty.
| 1561 Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer ii. Y iij, In my withered reasoninges. 1596 Raleigh Discov. Guiana A 3 b, I am returned a begger, and withered. 1637 Rutherford Let. to Parishioners 13 July, The Lord will..make this withered Kirk, to bud again like a rose. 1782 J. Brown in R. Mackenzie Life (1918) 237 Our sacrament is on the 5th Sabbath of June. Pray for our withered corner. 1810 Scott Lady of L. iv. xiii, Lay on him the curse of the wither'd heart. 1819 Keats Fall of Hyperion i. 288 The pale Omega of a wither'd race. 1860 Smiles Self Help xi. 285 The blasé youth turns from his withered pleasures. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. xv, A grey dusty withered evening in London. |
† 4. a. Worn out, ragged. Obs. rare.
| c 1480 Henryson Test. Cress. 165 His widderit weid fra him the wind out woir. |
† b. = weathered 1. Obs. rare.
| 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 348 Withered gneiss has sometimes the appearance of a grey slaty mortar. |
c. Tea-manuf. (see wither v.2 4 c).
| 1897 D. Crole Tea vii. 117 Trolly loads of withered leaf. |
5. Comb., as withered-looking adj.
| 1849 E. B. Eastwick Dry Leaves 179 His beard..stunted, tawny, and withered-looking. |
Hence ˈwitheredly adv., in a withered manner; ˈwitheredness, the condition of being withered; rarely concr. a withered part.
| 1535 Coverdale Isa. iii. 24 And for their bewty wythrednesse and sonneburnynge. 1621 T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 24 Old age..the unweldinesse or witherednesse of the body. 1658 A. Fox Würtz' Surg. iii. xxiii. 293 That witheredness caused by a fall..I have annointed twice a day. 1659 Torriano, Witheredly, seccamente. 1722 J. Willison Five Sacr. Serm. Wks. (1852) 313/2 There usually follows, on God's withdrawing, great witheredness and barrenness on the souls of his people. 1883 G. Macdonald Princess & Curdie iii, Every trace of the decrepitude and witheredness she showed..had vanished. |