waning meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

waning

adj

/ˈweɪ.nɪŋ/

Etymology From Middle English waninge, alteration of earlier waniand, waniende, from Old English waniende, from Proto-Germanic *wanōndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *wanōną (“to wane”), equivalent to wane + -ing.

Becoming weaker or smaller.

my patience is waning

Of the lunar phase: as it shrinks when viewed from the Earth.

the waning moon

Derived terms: waning gibbous, waning moon

waning

noun

Etymology From Middle English waning, waninge, wonunge, from Old English wanung (“waning; diminution”), from Proto-Germanic *wanungō, equivalent to wane + -ing.

The fact or act of becoming less or less intense or present; fading.

the waning of her energy
And boyhood is a summer sun Whose waning is the dreariest one — For all we live to know is known And all we seek to keep hath flown — […]1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:

1 more example

Soothed again, but only soothed to deeper gloom, Ahab, who had sterned off from the whale, sat intently watching his final wanings from the now tranquil boat.1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:

The fact or act of becoming smaller.

17th century, Joseph Hall, Epistle to Mr. R. B. This earthly moon, the Church, hath her fulls and wanings, and sometimes her eclipses.