Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To become limp or flaccid; droop.
  • intransitive verb To feel or exhibit the effects of fatigue or exhaustion; weaken markedly.
  • intransitive verb To cause to droop or lose freshness.
  • intransitive verb To deprive of energy or vigor; fatigue or exhaust.
  • noun The action of wilting or the state of being wilted.
  • noun Any of various plant diseases characterized by slow or rapid collapse of terminal shoots, branches, or entire plants.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To droop or fade, as plants or flowers when cut or plucked; wither.
  • To become soft or languid; lose energy, pith, or strength.
  • To cause to droop or become languid, as a plant; take the stiffness, strength, or vigor out. of; hence, to render limp and pithless; depress.
  • The second person singular present indicative of will.
  • noun A disease of plants which causes them to wilt: used only with a qualifying word indicative of the plant affected.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb Prov. Eng. & U. S. To begin to wither; to lose freshness and become flaccid, as a plant when exposed when exposed to drought, or to great heat in a dry day, or when separated from its root; to droop;. to wither.
  • 2d pers. sing. of will.
  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. U. S. To cause to begin to wither; to make flaccid, as a green plant.
  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. & U. S. Hence, to cause to languish; to depress or destroy the vigor and energy of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb archaic Second-person singular present tense of will
  • verb intransitive To droop or become limp and flaccid (as a dying leaf or flower).
  • verb intransitive To fatigue; to lose strength.
  • verb transitive To cause to droop or become limp and flaccid (as a flower).
  • verb transitive To cause to fatigue; to exhaust.
  • noun The act of wilting or the state of being wilted.
  • noun Any of various plant diseases characterized by wilting.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun causing to become limp or drooping
  • verb lose strength
  • verb become limp
  • noun any plant disease characterized by drooping and shriveling; usually caused by parasites attacking the roots

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Possibly alteration of dialectal welk, from Middle English welken.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Recorded since 1691, probably an alteration of welk, itself from Middle English welken, presumed from Middle Dutch (preserved in modern inchoative verwelken) or Middle Low German welken "to wither," cognate with Old High German irwelhen "to become soft.".

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