dwindle

English

WOTD – 12 December 2008

Etymology

Frequentative form of dwine, from Old English dwīnan (“to waste away”), equivalent to dwine +‎ -le, akin to Old Norse dvena/dvína (Danish tvine (“to pine away”)).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈdwɪn.dəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪndəl

Verb

dwindle (third-person singular simple present dwindles, present participle dwindling, simple past and past participle dwindled)

1. (intransitive) To decrease, shrink, diminish, reduce in size or intensity.
   • 1802, Erasmus, The Complaint of Peace, translated by T. Paynell,

     [E]very thing that was improving gradually degenerates and dwindles away to nothing, […]

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To fall away in quality; degenerate, sink.

   The flattery of his friends began to dwindle into simple approbation. (Goldsmith, Vicar, III)

   • Jonathan Swift

     Religious societies, though begun with excellent intentions, are said to have dwindled into factious clubs.

   • 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress

     The larger the empire, the more dwindles the mind of the citizen.

   • 2014 September 26, Charles Quest-Ritson, “The Dutch garden where tulip bulbs live forever: Hortus Bulborum, a volunteer-run Dutch garden, is dedicated to conserving historic varieties before they vanish for good [print version: Inspired by a living bulb archive, 27 September 2014, p. G5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)‎^[1]:

     […] [I]nfected tulips are weakened by the viruses that cause the very patterns and swirls that fascinated horticulturists and investors in the first place. Such bulbs tend to dwindle away instead of fattening up and producing offsets.

3. (transitive) To lessen; to bring low.
   • Thomson

     Our drooping days are dwindled down to naught.

4. To break up or disperse.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Clarendon to this entry?)

Derived terms

• dwindlement
• dwindling

Translations

(intransitive) to decrease, shrink, vanish

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: смалявам се (smaljavam se), свивам се (svivam se)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 縮小 (zh), 缩小 (zh) (suōxiǎo), 減少 (zh), 减少 (zh) (jiǎnshǎo)

• Czech: ubývat, zmenšovat se
• Dutch: verdwijnen (nl), smelten (nl), krimpen (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: vähetä (fi), huveta, haipua
• French: diminuer (fr), fondre (fr), s'amenuiser (fr), se tarir, se dessécher (fr), disparaître (fr), s'évanouir (fr), décroître (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: schwinden (de)
• Hungarian: fogy (hu), apad (hu), csökken (hu), elenyészik (hu), gyengül (hu), kevesbedik, kisebbedik (hu), megcsappan, sorvad (hu)
• Icelandic: dvína
• Ido: diminutar (io)

• Italian: restringersi, diminuire (it)
• Japanese: 減少する (ja) (げんしょうする, genshō suru)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: tāharahara
• Navajo: áádįįł
• Polish: umniejszać (pl)
• Portuguese: diminuir (pt), decrescer (pt)
• Russian: уменьша́ться (ru) impf (umenʹšátʹsja), уме́ньшиться (ru) pf (uménʹšitʹsja), сокраща́ться (ru) impf (sokraščátʹsja), сократи́ться (ru) pf (sokratítʹsja)
• Scottish Gaelic: crìon
• Serbo-Croatian: svisnuti (sh), свиснути
• Spanish: disminuir (es), agotarse (es), desaparecer (es), menguar (es)
• Swedish: minska (sv), krympa (sv), förtvina (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• windled