wane

verb

No English definition recorded for this entry.

Pronunciation: /weɪn/

Etymology: From Middle English wōne, wāne (“dwelling," "custom”), of unclear origins, compare wont.

Etymology: From Middle English wanen, wanien, from Old English wanian, wonian, from Proto-West Germanic *wanōn, from Proto-Germanic *wanōną.

To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.
“You saw but sorrow in its waning form.”
“Land and trade ever will wax and wane together.”
For light to dim or diminish in strength.
“The skies may hold not the splendour of sundown fast; / It wanes into twilight as dawn dies down into day.”
For the Moon to pass through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.
“The fall of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing of one moon-spot after another, as the moon wanes.”
Said of a time period that comes to an end.
“Fast as autumn days toward winter: yet it seems//Here that autumn wanes not, here that woods and streams”
To decrease physically in size, amount, numbers or surface.
“The snow which had been for some time waning, had given way entirely under the fresh gale of the preceding night.”
“Denisovans had little genetic diversity, suggesting that their small population waned further as populations of modern humans expanded.”
To cause to decrease.
“In which no lustful finger can profane him, Nor any earth with black eclipses wane him”
“Proud once and princely was the mansion, ere a succession of spendthrifts waned away its splendour.”