All 3 Uses of
wither
in
A Midsummer Night's Dream
- ] THESEUS Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace; four happy days bring in Another moon; but, oh, methinks, how slow This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires, Like to a step-dame or a dowager, Long withering out a young man's revenue.†
Scene 1.1
- But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.
Scene 1.1 *withering = shriveling (wrinkling, contracting, and drying out from age)
- I jest to Oberon, and make him smile, When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, Neighing in likeness of a filly foal; And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, In very likeness of a roasted crab; And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.†
Scene 2.1
Definition:
-
(wither) to shrivel (wrinkle and contract -- usually from lack of water)
or:
to become weaker; or feel humiliated