fade

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To slowly lose color or brightness.

   The curtains had faded in the sunlight over the years.

2. 2
   verb

   To gradually grow weaker, fainter, or disappear.

   The sound of the music faded into the distance.

3. 3
   verb

   To lose strength or freshness, as a plant does when it dies.

   The flowers in the vase began to fade after a week.

Multiword verbs with fade

• fade away Phrasal verb B1

  to gradually become weaker or less noticeable until disappearing

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Fade came into Middle English from Old French fade, “dull” or “insipid,” probably a blend of Latin fatuus, “silly, insipid,” and vapidus, “vapid.” Its early English sense was “grow weak” or “waste away.” The sense “lose freshness,” as in faded colours, developed alongside the meaning “lose strength.”

From Middle English fade, vad, vade (“faded, pale, withered, weak”), from Middle Dutch vade (“weak, faint, limp”), from Old French fade (“weak, witless”), of obscure origin. Probably from Vulgar Latin *fatidus, from Latin fatuus (“insipid”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary