withering

withering
    adj 1: wreaking or capable of wreaking complete destruction;
           "possessing annihilative power"; "a devastating
           hurricane"; "the guns opened a withering fire" [syn:
           {annihilative}, {annihilating}, {devastating},
           {withering}]
    2: making light of; "afire with annihilating invective"; "a
       devastating portrait of human folly"; "to compliments
       inflated I've a withering reply"- W.S.Gilbert [syn:
       {annihilating}, {devastating}, {withering}]
    n 1: any weakening or degeneration (especially through lack of
         use) [syn: {atrophy}, {withering}]
    

Wither \With"er\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Withered}; p. pr. & vb.
   n. {Withering}.] [OE. wideren; probably the same word as
   wederen to weather (see {Weather}, v. & n.); or cf. G.
   verwittern to decay, to be weather-beaten, Lith. vysti to
   wither.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. To fade; to lose freshness; to become sapless; to become
      sapless; to dry or shrivel up.
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            Shall he hot pull up the roots thereof, and cut off
            the fruit thereof, that it wither?    --Ezek. xvii.
                                                  9.
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   2. To lose or want animal moisture; to waste; to pin? away,
      as animal bodies.
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            This is man, old, wrinkled, faded, withered. --Shak.
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            There was a man which had his hand withered. --Matt.
                                                  xii. 10.
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            Now warm in love, now with'ring in the grave.
                                                  --Dryden.
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   3. To lose vigor or power; to languish; to pass away. "Names
      that must not wither." --Byron.
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            States thrive or wither as moons wax and wane.
                                                  --Cowper.
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Withering \With"er*ing\, a.
   Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade. --
   {With"er*ing*ly}, adv.
   [1913 Webster]
    

142 Moby Thesaurus words for "withering":
      Sanforizing, acerb, acerbate, acerbic, acid, acidic, acidulent,
      acidulous, acrid, acrimonious, air-drying, anhydration, arrogant,
      atrophy, attenuation, baneful, biting, bitter, calamitous,
      cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, caustic, clannish,
      cliquish, coming apart, consuming, consumption, consumptive,
      contemptuous, contumelious, corroding, corrosive, cracking,
      crumbling, cutting, deadly, decadent, declining, degenerate,
      dehumidification, dehydration, demolishing, demolitionary,
      depredatory, desiccation, desolating, destroying, destructive,
      deteriorating, devastating, disastrous, disdainful, disintegrating,
      doomful, drainage, draining, drooping, drying, drying up,
      dwindling, ebbing, effete, emaceration, emaciation, evaporation,
      exclusive, fading, failing, falling, fatal, fateful, flagging,
      fragmenting, fratricidal, going to pieces, haughty, incisive,
      insolation, internecine, keen, languishing, marcescence,
      marcescent, mordacious, mordant, mummification, nihilist,
      nihilistic, parching, penetrating, piercing, pining, preshrinkage,
      ravaging, regressive, retrograde, retrogressive, ruining, ruinous,
      scathing, scorching, scornful, searing, self-destructive, sharp,
      shrinkage, shrinking, shriveling, sinking, sliding, slipping,
      slumping, sneering, sniffy, snobbish, snobby, snooty, snotty,
      stabbing, stinging, subsiding, subversionary, subversive, suicidal,
      supercilious, tabetic, tart, thinning, toploftical, toplofty,
      trenchant, vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic, waning, wastage,
      waste, wasteful, wasting, wilting, worsening