dictionary definitions for "wane"


From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Wane \Wane\, v. t.
     To cause to decrease. [Obs.] --B. Jonson.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Wane \Wane\, n.
     1. The decrease of the illuminated part of the moon to the
        eye of a spectator.
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     2. Decline; failure; diminution; decrease; declension.
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              An age in which the church is in its wane. --South.
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              Though the year be on the wane.       --Keble.
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     3. An inequality in a board. [Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell.
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     4. (Forestry) The natural curvature of a log or of the edge
        of a board sawed from a log.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Wane \Wane\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Waned; p. pr. & vb. n.
     Waning.] [OE. wanien, AS. wanian, wonian, from wan, won,
     deficient, wanting; akin to D. wan-, G. wahnsinn, insanity,
     OHG. wan, wana-, lacking, wan?n to lessen, Icel. vanr
     lacking, Goth. vans; cf. Gr. ? bereaved, Skr. ?na wanting,
     inferior. ????. Cf. Want lack, and Wanton.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. To be diminished; to decrease; -- contrasted with wax,
        and especially applied to the illuminated part of the
        moon.
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              Like the moon, aye wax ye and wane.
              Waning moons their settled periods keep. --Addison.
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     2. To decline; to fail; to sink.
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              You saw but sorrow in its waning form. --Dryden.
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              Land and trade ever will wax and wane together.
                                                    --Sir J.
                                                    Child.
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From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:

  wane
      n 1: a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)
           [syn: ebb, ebbing, wane]
      v 1: grow smaller; "Interest in the project waned" [syn:
           decline, go down, wane]
      2: become smaller; "Interest in his novels waned" [ant: climb,
         mount, rise, wax]
      3: decrease in phase; "the moon is waning" [ant: full, wax]


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