wilt1
/wɪlt
/verb
1 [no object] (Of a plant, leaf, or flower) become limp through heat, loss of water, or disease; droop.At this time, chill treatment seedlings were severely wilted with extensive leaf rolling characteristic of water-stressed maize....
- Insufficient removal of these air embolisms may result in serious water stress which may lead to early leaf wilting as previously shown in chrysanthemum cut flowers.
- Similarly, in cut chrysanthemum flowers, the leaves often wilt, due to a blockage for water transport in the xylem of the basal stem part.
Synonyms
droop, sag, become limp, become flaccid, flop;
wither, shrivel (up)
1.1(Of a person) lose energy, vigour, or confidence: Lady Beresford was beginning to wilt as she greeted the long line of guests...
- Most people wilt under my malevolent glare and scurry away, with the exception of my friend's ex who replied, ‘You find me a microwave big enough first!’
- I have seen people wilt under infinitely less, and she just maintained class and dignity throughout.
- What with chasing up health care, and taking delivery of 200 gallons of heating oil, and tackling a stream of official forms and stuff, I was wilting more than just a little by the end of the afternoon.
Synonyms
languish, flag, lose energy, become listless, feel weak/faint;
droop, sag
2 [with object] Leave (mown grass or a forage crop) in the open to dry partially before being collected for silage.Alfalfa herbage was wilted, chopped, and conserved as AS by procedures and in a storage structure defined previously for SGS....
- There will be no effluent in baled silage if the grass is wilted to above 23% dry matter.
- If weather dries up, wilt this grass and use a preservative if sugars are low.
noun [mass noun, usually with modifier]
Any of a number of fungal or bacterial diseases of plants characterized by wilting of the foliage: these varieties are more resistant to aphids and wilt...
- Both stages can carry bacterial wilt or cucumber mosaic virus, diseases that will quickly kill the plant.
- They are blamed with spreading bacterial wilt and cucumber mosaic.
- Hail damage can increase the incidence of corn smut, stalk rot, Goss's bacterial wilt and blight and holcus spot.
Origin
Late 17th century (originally dialect): perhaps an alteration of dialect welk 'lose freshness', of Low German origin.
Rhymes
wilt2
/wɪlt/ Archaic second person singular of will1.