wane

wane
    n 1: a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)
         [syn: {ebb}, {ebbing}, {wane}]
    v 1: grow smaller; "Interest in the project waned" [syn:
         {decline}, {go down}, {wane}]
    2: become smaller; "Interest in his novels waned" [ant: {climb},
       {mount}, {rise}, {wax}]
    3: decrease in phase; "the moon is waning" [ant: {full}, {wax}]
    

Wane \Wane\, v. t.
   To cause to decrease. [Obs.] --B. Jonson.
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Wane \Wane\, n.
   1. The decrease of the illuminated part of the moon to the
      eye of a spectator.
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   2. Decline; failure; diminution; decrease; declension.
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            An age in which the church is in its wane. --South.
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            Though the year be on the wane.       --Keble.
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   3. An inequality in a board. [Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell.
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   4. (Forestry) The natural curvature of a log or of the edge
      of a board sawed from a log.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
    

Wane \Wane\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Waned}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Waning}.] [OE. wanien, AS. wanian, wonian, from wan, won,
   deficient, wanting; akin to D. wan-, G. wahnsinn, insanity,
   OHG. wan, wana-, lacking, wan?n to lessen, Icel. vanr
   lacking, Goth. vans; cf. Gr. ? bereaved, Skr. ?na wanting,
   inferior. ????. Cf. {Want} lack, and {Wanton}.]
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   1. To be diminished; to decrease; -- contrasted with {wax},
      and especially applied to the illuminated part of the
      moon.
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            Like the moon, aye wax ye and wane.
            Waning moons their settled periods keep. --Addison.
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   2. To decline; to fail; to sink.
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            You saw but sorrow in its waning form. --Dryden.
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            Land and trade ever will wax and wane together.
                                                  --Sir J.
                                                  Child.
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200 Moby Thesaurus words for "wane":
      abate, ablate, advance, age, ascend, back, back up, bate,
      be eaten away, beat, budge, calm, calm down, catabasis, cease,
      cessation, change, change place, cheat the undertaker, circle,
      climb, collapse, comedown, consume, consume away, corrode, crash,
      crumble, dead set, dead stand, dead stop, deadlock, debasement,
      decadence, decadency, deceleration, declension, declination,
      decline, decline and fall, decrease, decrescendo, deformation,
      degeneracy, degenerateness, degeneration, degradation, deliquesce,
      demotion, depravation, depravedness, depreciation, derogation,
      descend, descent, deterioration, devolution, die, die away,
      die down, diminish, diminuendo, dive, dodder, downtrend, downturn,
      downward mobility, downward trend, drift away, drop, drop off,
      dwindle, dwindling, dying, dying down, ease off, ebb, ebbing,
      effeteness, erode, fade, fade away, fading, fail, failing, failure,
      failure of nerve, fall, fall away, fall off, fall short,
      falling-off, flow, full stop, get along, get on, get over, go,
      go around, go away, go down, go downhill, go off, go round,
      go sideways, grow old, gyrate, halt, hit a slump, hit rock bottom,
      hit the skids, involution, languish, lapse, lash, lessen, let up,
      lock, loss of tone, lull, melt away, moderate, molder, mount, move,
      move away, move off, move over, pacify, plummet, plunge, progress,
      pull away, quiesce, quiet, quieten, reach the depths, recede,
      regress, regression, relent, remission, retire, retreat, retrocede,
      retrocession, retrogradation, retrogress, retrogression, rise,
      rotate, run, run down, run low, sag, shake, shift, shrink, shrivel,
      sink, slacken, slide, slip, slippage, slowdown, slump, soar,
      soothe, spin, stand, stand off, standstill, stillstand, stir, stop,
      stream, subside, subsidence, switch, tail off, totter,
      touch bottom, tranquilize, travel, turn gray, turn white, wag,
      waggle, waning, waste, waste away, weaken, wear, wear away, whirl,
      widen the distance, withdraw, wither, wizen, wrinkle