dwindle
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dwindle
- /ˈdwɪn.dəl/ UK, US
Rhymes with -ɪndəl
Where it comes from
Frequentative form of dwine, from Middle English dwynen, 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”).
verb dwindles · dwindling · dwindled
- To decrease, shrink, diminish, reduce in size or intensity. Their supplies began to dwindle after a week.
- To fall away in quality; degenerate, sink. VVearie Seu'nights, nine times nine, / Shall he dvvindle, peake, and pine: […]
- To lessen; to bring low. Our drooping days are dwindled down to nought.
- 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
