dwindle

«dwindle» in Mova's school dictionary: To become smaller, fewer or weaker little by little until… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (dwindle, dwindles, dwindled, dwindling)

meaning for a pupil

1) To become smaller, fewer or weaker little by little until there is very little left. tree →

2) dwindling (adjective): getting smaller. tree →

sense in the lessons

In geography and science, dwindling numbers of animals, water or forests show a problem; in maths stories, supplies dwindle as they are used; in stories, hope or light dwindles; phrases: «dwindling numbers», «dwindle away», «dwindling supplies».

examples

• Our supply of biscuits dwindled during the camping trip. tree →
• The number of tigers in the wild has dwindled. tree →
• The crowd dwindled as it got dark. tree →
• Their hope dwindled as the hours passed. tree →
• Our savings dwindled after the holiday. tree →
• The river dwindled to a tiny stream in summer. tree →

note

Regular verb. Similar: shrink, decrease, fade. Opposite: grow, increase. In maths: if 20 sweets dwindle by 3 each day, after 5 days 5 are left.

In the corpora

• And thine enemies shall dwindle away before thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.
• The sons of the stranger dwindle away before me; as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
• As soon as they hear of me, they obey me; the sons of the stranger dwindle away before me.
• Through the greatness of Thy power shall Thine enemies dwindle away before Thee.
• The haters of the LORD should dwindle away before Him; and their punishment should endure for ever.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «dwindle» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.