[syn: decline, go down, wane]
2. become smaller;
- Example: "Interest in his novels waned"
3. decrease in phase;
- Example: "the moon is waning"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wane \Wane\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Waned; p. pr. & vb. n.
Waning.] [OE. wanien, AS. wanian, wonian, from wan, won,
deficient, wanting; akin to D. wan-, G. wahnsinn, insanity,
OHG. wan, wana-, lacking, wan?n to lessen, Icel. vanr
lacking, Goth. vans; cf. Gr. ? bereaved, Skr. ?na wanting,
inferior. ????. Cf. Want lack, and Wanton.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To be diminished; to decrease; -- contrasted with wax,
and especially applied to the illuminated part of the
moon.
[1913 Webster]
Like the moon, aye wax ye and wane.
Waning moons their settled periods keep. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
2. To decline; to fail; to sink.
[1913 Webster]
You saw but sorrow in its waning form. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
Land and trade ever will wax and wane together.
--Sir J.
Child.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wane \Wane\, v. t.
To cause to decrease. [Obs.] --B. Jonson.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wane \Wane\, n.
1. The decrease of the illuminated part of the moon to the
eye of a spectator.
[1913 Webster]
2. Decline; failure; diminution; decrease; declension.
[1913 Webster]
An age in which the church is in its wane. --South.
[1913 Webster]
Though the year be on the wane. --Keble.
[1913 Webster]
3. An inequality in a board. [Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Forestry) The natural curvature of a log or of the edge
of a board sawed from a log.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
wane
n 1: a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)
[syn: ebb, ebbing, wane]
v 1: grow smaller; "Interest in the project waned" [syn:
decline, go down, wane]
2: become smaller; "Interest in his novels waned" [ant: climb,
mount, rise, wax]
3: decrease in phase; "the moon is waning" [ant: full, wax]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
200 Moby Thesaurus words for "wane":
abate, ablate, advance, age, ascend, back, back up, bate,
be eaten away, beat, budge, calm, calm down, catabasis, cease,
cessation, change, change place, cheat the undertaker, circle,
climb, collapse, comedown, consume, consume away, corrode, crash,
crumble, dead set, dead stand, dead stop, deadlock, debasement,
decadence, decadency, deceleration, declension, declination,
decline, decline and fall, decrease, decrescendo, deformation,
degeneracy, degenerateness, degeneration, degradation, deliquesce,
demotion, depravation, depravedness, depreciation, derogation,
descend, descent, deterioration, devolution, die, die away,
die down, diminish, diminuendo, dive, dodder, downtrend, downturn,
downward mobility, downward trend, drift away, drop, drop off,
dwindle, dwindling, dying, dying down, ease off, ebb, ebbing,
effeteness, erode, fade, fade away, fading, fail, failing, failure,
failure of nerve, fall, fall away, fall off, fall short,
falling-off, flow, full stop, get along, get on, get over, go,
go around, go away, go down, go downhill, go off, go round,
go sideways, grow old, gyrate, halt, hit a slump, hit rock bottom,
hit the skids, involution, languish, lapse, lash, lessen, let up,
lock, loss of tone, lull, melt away, moderate, molder, mount, move,
move away, move off, move over, pacify, plummet, plunge, progress,
pull away, quiesce, quiet, quieten, reach the depths, recede,
regress, regression, relent, remission, retire, retreat, retrocede,
retrocession, retrogradation, retrogress, retrogression, rise,
rotate, run, run down, run low, sag, shake, shift, shrink, shrivel,
sink, slacken, slide, slip, slippage, slowdown, slump, soar,
soothe, spin, stand, stand off, standstill, stillstand, stir, stop,
stream, subside, subsidence, switch, tail off, totter,
touch bottom, tranquilize, travel, turn gray, turn white, wag,
waggle, waning, waste, waste away, weaken, wear, wear away, whirl,
widen the distance, withdraw, wither, wizen, wrinkle