wizened

English

WOTD – 6 October 2012

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈwɪzənd/, /ˈwizənd/

Verb

wizened

  1. simple past tense and past participle of wizen

Adjective

wizened (comparative more wizened, superlative most wizened)

  1. Withered; lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness.
    • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, Old Mortality, ch. 8:
      "Ill-fard, crazy, crack-brained gowk, that she is!" exclaimed the housekeeper. . . "If it hadna been that I am mair than half a gentlewoman by my station, I wad hae tried my ten nails in the wizen'd hide o' her!"
    • 1907, Jack London, Before Adam, ch. 7:
      He was old, too, wizened with age, and the hair on his face was gray.
    • 2010 May 13, Richard Corliss, "Cannes: Best-Ever Film by a 101-Year-Old Man," Time (retrieved 5 Oct 2013):
      In the simple fable about old age reconciling itself to memory and destiny, Mastroianni wears the wizened smile of a man who knows he is visiting his youth for the last time.

Translations

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