withering

comparative more withering · superlative most withering

1. Tending to destroy, devastate, overwhelm, or cause complete destruction.

   The D-Day troops came under withering fire.

   2 more examples

   Before the clearing had been half crossed the Arabs opened up a withering fire from behind the palisade.

   1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 135

   Shockingly, under such a withering combined barrage, the Japanese destroyer promptly exploded and sank in short order, before even having had a chance to unleash her Long Lances. First blood to the USN!

   2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 12:55 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from the original on 17 Oct 2022

2. Diminishing rapidly.

   The playboy seemed oblivious to his withering fortune as he continued in his decadent lifestyle.

   1 more example

   Go—ask of nature in thy walk. The rose-bud, dying on its stalk, The fading grass—the withering tree, Are emblems of thy fate and thee.

   1815, Lydia Sigourney, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, Procrastination, page 9

3. Tending to make someone feel small; scornful in a mortifying way.

   He made withering remarks about his adversary.

   3 more examples

   Jane's mother in law gave her a withering look.

   It is a very serious thing that there be Worlds and Suns, and yet most withering is the laughter of Māna-Yood-Sushāī. And when he arises from resting at the Last, and laughs at us for playing with Worlds and Suns, We will hastily put them behind us, and there shall be Worlds no more.

   1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC

   The chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, four tech giants worth nearly $5 trillion combined, faced withering questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike on Wednesday for the tactics and market dominance that had made their enterprises successful.

   2020 July 29, Cecilia Kang, David McCabe, “Lawmakers, United in Their Ire, Lash Out at Big Tech’s Leaders”, in New York Times

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of wither

plural witherings

1. The process by which something withers.

   Spiritual witherings and decayings are opposite to the word of God.

   1839, William Jenkyn, James Sherman, An Exposition Upon the Epistle of Jude, page 274

plural Witherings

1. A surname.