wizen

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   shrunken, withered, and wrinkled, especially through age, illness, or dryness

   The portrait gave the old scholar a wizen face and sharply hollowed cheeks.

2. 2
   verb

   archaic: to become or cause to become shrunken, dry, and wrinkled

   Years of exposure seemed to wizen the sailor's face.

Inherited from Middle English wisenen and Old English wisnian, 'to wither or dry up,' from a Germanic root. The participial form wizened is now more common, while wizen survives as both an adjective and a literary or archaic verb.

Topics