wane
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: arts
astronomy
business
carpentry
construction
crafts
hobbies
lifestyle
manufacturing
natural-sciences
woodworking
Etymology: From Middle English wane, from Old English wana (“defect, shortage”), from Proto-West Germanic *wanō, from Proto-Germanic *wanô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to leave, abandon; empty, deserted”).
Cognates
See also wan-, want, and waste. Compare also Dutch waan (“insanity”) and German Wahn (“insanity”) deprecated defect, Old Norse vanr (“lacking”) ( > Danish prefix van-, only found in compounds), Latin vanus, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐍃 (wans, “missing, lacking”), Albanian vonë (“late, futile, mentally retarded”), Armenian ունայն (unayn, “empty”), Old Saxon and Old High German wanon (“to decrease”), Modern Dutch weinig (“a few”), Modern German weniger (“less”), comparative of wenig (“few”) (-ig being a derivate suffix; -er the suffix of comparatives). Doublet of vain, vaunt, vaniloquent, vast, vacuum, vacant, vacate, which are Latin-derived, via the PIE root.
Inflected forms:
form: wanes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: wanes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: waning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: waned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: waned
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
pos: noun
examples: In the morning, one might say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o’clock, meridian—his dinner hour—it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals; and continued blazing—but, as it were, with a gradual wane—till six o’clock, P.M., or thereabouts; […].
1913, Michael Ott, The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Wenzel Anton Kaunitz",
His influence which was on the wane during the reign of Joseph II grew still less during the reign of Leopold II (1790-2).
gloss: The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.
pos: noun
examples: Some French peasants also prefer to sow in the wane.
It was very dark, for although the sky was clear the moon was now well in the wane, and would not rise till the small hours.
gloss: The end of a period.
pos: noun
tags: literary
examples: The day was in its prime, the day was in its wane, and still, uneasy in mind and body, she slept on.
The situation of the Venetian party in the wane of the eighteenth century had become extremely critical.
]
gloss: A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
pos: noun
examples: 2002, Peter Ross, Appraisal and Repair of Timber Structures, p. 11,
Sapwood, or even bark, may appear on the corners, or may have been cut off, resulting in wane, or missing timber.
gloss: To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: You saw but sorrow in its waning form.
Land and trade ever will wax and wane together.
I have sat before the dense coal fire and watched it all aglow, full of its tormented flaming life; and I have seen it wane at last, down, down, to dumbest dust.
And in the cool twilight when the sea-winds wane[…]
And so it had always pleased M. Stutz to expect great things from the dark young man whom he had first seen in his early twenties ; and his expectations had waxed rather than waned on hearing the faint bruit of the love of Ivor and Virginia—for Virginia, M. Stutz thought, would bring fineness to a point in a man like Ivor Marlay, […].
When your focus wanes and you feel the urge to online shop or grab a game of 2048, there are tech tools to prevent your giving in.
His popularity, however, has waned, say analysts.
gloss: For light to dim or diminish in strength.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The skies may hold not the splendour of sundown fast; / It wanes into twilight as dawn dies down into day.
gloss: For the Moon to pass through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The fall of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing of one moon-spot after another, as the moon wanes.
gloss: Said of a time period that comes to an end.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Fast as autumn days toward winter: yet it seems//Here that autumn wanes not, here that woods and streams
gloss: To decrease physically in size, amount, numbers or surface.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To cause to decrease.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: 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.
Antonyms: wax
Derived words: on the wane
wax and wane
Translations: