wane
part of speech
verb (wane, wanes, waned, waning); noun (on the wane)
meaning for a pupil
1) (science) Of the Moon: to look smaller each night after the full moon, as less of its lit side faces the Earth. tree →
2) To become weaker, smaller or less important little by little: interest, light or strength can wane. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons on the Moon's phases, the Moon waxes (grows) from new moon to full moon, then wanes (shrinks) back. A "waning crescent" is the thin Moon before the new moon. In stories and the news, "his interest began to wane" means he became less interested. "On the wane" means getting weaker. Phrases: "wax and wane", "a waning moon", "on the wane", "interest waned".
examples
- After the full moon, the Moon begins to wane. tree →
- We drew the waning moon in our science diary. tree →
- As the evening went on, the light began to wane. tree →
- My interest in the film waned after half an hour. tree →
- The storm waned during the night. tree →
- The fashion for that toy is on the wane. tree →
- The Moon waxes and wanes about once a month. tree →
- When he finds her, she is living at ease in a large house, but day by day her riches wane and her house contracts. tree →
note
Regular verb: waned, waning. Opposite: wax (for the Moon), grow, increase. Homophone trap: "wane" sounds like "Wayne" (a name) and "wain" (an old word for a farm cart). The Moon does not really change size; only the part we see lit by the Sun changes.
In the corpora
- A growing Moon is waxing and a shrinking one is waning, and from Britain a waxing Moon is lit on its right side.
- A waxing moon grows bigger each night, and a waning moon grows smaller.
- A Moon that looks bigger each night is waxing; a Moon that looks smaller each night is waning.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «wane» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.