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Dwindle

verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To decrease, shrink, diminish, reduce in size or intensity. intransitive

    "Their supplies began to dwindle after a week."

  2. 2
    become smaller or lose substance wordnet
  3. 3
    To fall away in quality; degenerate, sink. figuratively, intransitive

    "VVearie Seu'nights, nine times nine, / Shall he dvvindle, peake, and pine: […]"

  4. 4
    To lessen; to bring low. transitive

    "Our drooping days are dwindled down to nought."

  5. 5
    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"

Etymology

Frequentative form of dwine, from Middle English dwinen, 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”).

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