WILT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does wilt mean? 

• WILT (noun)
  The noun WILT has 2 senses:

1. any plant disease characterized by drooping and shriveling; usually caused by parasites attacking the roots

2. causing to become limp or drooping

  Familiarity information: WILT used as a noun is rare.

• WILT (verb)
  The verb WILT has 2 senses:

1. lose strength

2. become limp

  Familiarity information: WILT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WILT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any plant disease characterized by drooping and shriveling; usually caused by parasites attacking the roots

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

wilt; wilt disease

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

plant disease (a disease that affects plants)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wilt"):

granville wilt (a bacterial wilt of tobacco plants)

fusarium wilt (wilt caused by fungi of the genus Fusarium)

verticilliosis (wilt caused by fungi of the genus Verticillium)

Derivation:

wilt (become limp)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Causing to become limp or drooping

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

wilt; wilting

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

weakening (the act of reducing the strength of something)

• WILT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they wilt    ... he / she / it wilts   
Past simple: wilted   
Past participle: wilted   
-ing form: wilting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lose strength

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

My opponent was wilting

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

weaken (become weaker)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become limp

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

droop; wilt

Context example:

The flowers wilted

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

crumble; decay; dilapidate (fall into decay or ruin)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

wilt (any plant disease characterized by drooping and shriveling; usually caused by parasites attacking the roots)

wilted ((of plants) limp due to heat, loss of water, or disease)

wilting (causing to become limp or drooping)

 Context examples 

"And . . . and . . . and wilt thou tell us, O Keesh?"

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The cub felt his mother wilting at the sound.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Wilt guard my treasure for me?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Wilt thou then forget me quite?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

He seemed to be wilting away in his anxiety.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He found no such statement, but he did find that which made him suddenly wilt.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Pleasant smelling compound found in many plants and released on wilting.

(Coumarin, NCI Thesaurus)

A taxonomic family of bacterium in the phylum Proteobacteria that may cause wilt and rot in a number of plant species.

(Burkholderiaceae, NCI Thesaurus)

I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I felt a wilting sensation, a sinking at the heart, and, I might just as well say, a giddiness.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)