WANE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wane mean? 

• WANE (noun)
  The noun WANE has 1 sense:

1. a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)

  Familiarity information: WANE used as a noun is very rare.

• WANE (verb)
  The verb WANE has 3 senses:

1. grow smaller

2. become smaller

3. decrease in phase

  Familiarity information: WANE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WANE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

ebb; ebbing; wane

Hypernyms ("wane" is a kind of...):

decline; diminution (change toward something smaller or lower)

Derivation:

wane (grow smaller)

wane (decrease in phase)

• WANE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they wane    ... he / she / it wanes   
Past simple: waned   
Past participle: waned   
-ing form: waning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Grow smaller

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

decline; go down; wane

Context example:

Interest in the project waned

Hypernyms (to "wane" is one way to...):

decrease; diminish; fall; lessen (decrease in size, extent, or range)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wane"):

dip (go down momentarily)

wear on (pass slowly (of time))

drop (go down in value)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

wane (a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number))

waning (a gradual decrease in magnitude or extent)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become smaller

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

Interest in his novels waned

Hypernyms (to "wane" is one way to...):

decrease; diminish; fall; lessen (decrease in size, extent, or range)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Antonym:

wax (go up or advance)

Derivation:

waning (a gradual decrease in magnitude or extent)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Decrease in phase

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

the moon is waning

Hypernyms (to "wane" is one way to...):

decrease; diminish; fall; lessen (decrease in size, extent, or range)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence example:

The moon will soon wane

Antonym:

wax (increase in phase)

Derivation:

wane (a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number))

waning (a gradual decrease in magnitude or extent)

 Context examples 

Yet, largely hidden from daily life, the field drifts, waxes and wanes.

(Earth's last magnetic field reversal took far longer than once thought, National Science Foundation)

Then, as the short day waned, we fell to discussing Wolf Larsen’s blindness. It was inexplicable.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Thus in the season of the waning days the might of England put forth on to the waters.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But now his waning powers would not permit such a course.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

"If Mother would only come now!" said Jo, as the winter night began to wane.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was in those days that we began our lifelong friendship, a friendship which still in our waning years binds us closely as two brothers.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The X9.3 flare was the largest flare so far in the current solar cycle, the approximately 11-year-cycle during which the sun’s activity waxes and wanes.

(Two Significant Solar Flares Imaged by NASA's SDO, NASA)

Yet the scene in the dining-room of the Abbey Grange was sufficiently strange to arrest his attention and to recall his waning interest.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Out of the black shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of the metal pipes.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The new studies, led by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), provide insights into the mysterious timing of sunspot cycles, which are marked by the waxing and waning of sunspot activity on the solar surface.

('Terminators' on the sun trigger plasma tsunamis, start of new solar cycles, National Science Foundation)