Fade
Pronunciation
- IPA: /feɪd/
- Rhymes: -eɪd
Origin 1
From Middle English fade, fede, of uncertain origin. Compare Old English ġefæd ("orderly, tidy, discreet, well-regulated"). See also fad.
Origin 2
From Middle English fade, vad, vade ("faded, pale, withered, weak"), from Middle Dutch vade ("weak, faint, limp"), from Old French fade ("weak, witless"), of obscure origin. Probably from Vulgar Latin *fatidus, from Latin fatuus ("insipid").
Adjective
fade
- (archaic) Weak; insipid; tasteless; commonplace.
- JefferyPassages that are somewhat fade.
- De QuinceyHis masculine taste gave him a sense of something fade and ludicrous.
Noun
fade
(plural fades)- (golf) A golf shot that (for the right-handed player) curves intentionally to the right. See slice, hook, draw.
- A haircut where the hair is short or shaved on the sides of the head and longer on top. See also high-top fade and low fade.
Verb
- (intransitive) To become faded; to grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.
- Bible, Is. xxiv. 4The earth mourneth and fadeth away.
- (intransitive) To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color.
- Miltonflowers that never fade
- 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 1, The half-dozen pieces … were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. To display them the walls had been tinted a vivid blue which had now faded, but the carpet, which had evidently been stored and recently relaid, retained its original turquoise.
- (intransitive) To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.The milkman's whistling faded into the distance.
- AddisonThe stars shall fade away.
- ShakespeareHe makes a swanlike end,
Fading in music. - 1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-AvelingA strange thing was that Bovary, while continually thinking of Emma, was forgetting her. He grew desperate as he felt this image fading from his memory in spite of all efforts to retain it. Yet every night he dreamt of her; it was always the same dream. He drew near her, but when he was about to clasp her she fell into decay in his arms.
- (transitive) To cause to fade.