wane

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   grow smaller

   Interest in the project waned

2. 2
   verb

   to become smaller

   Interest in their novels waned.

3. 3
   noun

   A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.

   1853, Herman Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener," in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin, 1968; reprinted 1995 as Bartleby, →ISBN, p. 3, In the morning, one might say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o'clock, meridian -- his dinner hour -- it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals; and continued blazing -- but, as it were, with a gradual wane -- till six o'clock, PM, or thereabouts; after which, I saw no more of the proprietor of the face, ….

4. 4
   noun

   The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.

   Some French peasants also prefer to sow in the wane.

5. 5
   noun

   The end of a period.

   The day was in its prime, the day was in its wane, and still, uneasy in mind and body, she slept on.

6. 6
   noun

   A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.

   2002, Peter Ross, Appraisal and Repair of Timber Structures, p. 11, Sapwood, or even bark, may appear on the corners, or may have been cut off, resulting in wane, or missing timber.

7. 7
   verb

   To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.

   You saw but sorrow in its waning form.

8. 8
   verb

   For light to dim or diminish in strength.

   The skies may hold not the splendour of sundown fast; / It wanes into twilight as dawn dies down into day.

Etymology

From Middle English wane, from Old English wana (“defect, shortage”), from Proto-West Germanic *wanō, from Proto-Germanic *wanô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to leave, abandon; empty, deserted”). Cognates See also wan-, want, and waste. Compare also Dutch waan (“insanity”) and German Wahn (“insanity”) deprecated defect, Old Norse vanr (“lacking”) ( > Danish prefix van-, only found in compounds), Latin vanus, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐍃 (wans, “missing, lacking”), Albanian vonë (“late, futile, mentally retarded”), Armenian ունայն (unayn, “empty”), Old Saxon and Old High German wanon (“to decrease”), Mod…