Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Withers |
WithersNoun1. Sensibility to trouble (as in the phrase "wring one's withers"); "the lawsuit was wringing his withers"; "our withers are unwrung"--Shakespeare. 2. The highest part of the back at the base of the neck of various animals especially draft animals. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "withers" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Withers \With"ers\, plural noun. [Properly, the parts which resist the pull or strain in drawing load; from Old English wither resistance, Anglo-Saxon wi[eth]re, from wi[eth]er against; akin to German widerrist withers. See With, preposition.]. (references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Convexity | Tooth, knob, elbow, process, apophysis, condyle, bulb, node, nodule, nodosity, tongue, dorsum, bump, clump; sugar loaf; (sharpness); bow; mamelon; molar; belly, corporation, pot belly, gut; withers, back, shoulder, lip, flange. |
Envy | Phrase: " base envy withers at another's joy "; caeca invidia est; multa petentibus desunt multa;Phrase: " base envy withers at another's joy "; caeca invidia est; multa petentibus desunt multa; summa petit livor. |
Insensibility | Adverb: insensibly; Adjective: aequo animo; without being moved, without being touched, without being impressed; in cold blood; with dry eyes, with withers unwrung. |
Strength | Phrase: "our withers are unwrung". |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Withers |
| English words defined with "withers": To blow upon ♦ Witherband, Wither-wrung. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "withers": indirect rein of opposition in front of the withers ♦ Withers of a Horse. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I plant them, but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Music |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
G. Macdonald | Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk. |
Josiah Gilbert Holland | One thing at a time, all things in succession. That which grows fast withers as rapidly; and that which grows slow endures. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Withers" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 60.61% of the time. "Withers" is used about 66 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 60.61% | 40 | 54,274 |
| Noun (proper) | 34.85% | 23 | 72,767 |
| Lexical Verb (-s form) | 4.55% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 66 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "withers" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Withers | Last name | 4,000 | 2,890 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "withers": indirect rein of opposition in front of the withers ♦ my withers are unwrung ♦ with withers unwrung. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "withers"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Arabic | الحارك أعلى كاهل الفرس. (various references) | |
Chinese | 枯萎 (Blighted, Blighting, seared, Searing, Sears, shrivel, Shrivelling, Wilt, wilted, Wilting). (various references) | |
Czech | kohoutek (cockerel, faucet, stopcock, tap). (various references) | |
Danish | skulderkam (top of shoulder). (various references) | |
Dutch | schoft (rogue, scoundrel). (various references) | |
Finnish | säkä (top of shoulder). (various references) | |
French | garrot du cheval, garrot, dessus de l'épaule. (various references) | |
German | welkt (wilts), verblüht (faded). (various references) | |
Greek | ώμοι ίππου. (various references) | |
Hungarian | marja. (various references) | |
Italian | garrese (top of shoulder). (various references) | |
Manx | dronnag (camel, dromedary). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ithersway.(various references) | |
Portuguese | garrote (garotte, garrotte), cruz (cross, dagger), cernelhe (top of shoulder), cernelha, agulha (broach, compass, needle, needlefish, point, roasting-jack, spire, spur). (various references) | |
Romanian | greabãn (back, top), cerbice (stiffness). (various references) | |
Russian | холка (crest). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | hrbat (backbone, loin). (various references) | |
Spanish | cruz de caballo, cruz (carfax, criss cross, cross, dagger, Mark, rood, tails). (various references) | |
Swedish | manke (top of shoulder). (various references) | |
Turkish | atın omuz başı. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | холка (crest), шийний ремінь. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "withers": withershins. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "withers": swithers. (additional references) | |
| |
"Withers" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: wether, wethers, whithers, wiether, Wimhurst, winther, withar, witheres, wuther. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "withers" (pronounced wi"therz) |
| 4 | -i" th er z | dithers, Smithers, zithers. |
| 3 | -th er z | bathers, bellwethers, bothers, brothers, druthers, fathers, feathers, forefathers, furthers, gathers, grandfathers, grandmothers, heathers, lathers, leathers, mothers, others, smothers, southers, tethers, weathers. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: swither, writhes. | |
| Words within the letters "e-h-i-r-s-t-w" | |
-1 letter: swithe, theirs, twiers, whiter, whites, wisher, wither, withes, wriest, writes, writhe. | |
-2 letters: heirs, heist, hires, ither, rites, shier, shire, shirt, shrew, strew, swith, their, thews, threw, tiers, tires, trews, tries, twier, weirs, whets, whirs, whist, white, whits, wires, wiser, wites, withe, wrest, wries, wrist, write, writs. | |
-3 letters: erst, eths, heir, hers, hest, hets. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-h-i-r-s-t-w" | |
+1 letter: misthrew, switcher, swithers, waterish, whistler, whitters, worthies, writhers. | |
+2 letters: dishwater, erstwhile, howitzers, otherwise, swarthier, switchers, swithered, twitchers, weighters, whirliest, whistlers, whiteners, whittlers, whittrets, witherers, worthiest, wrathiest. | |
+3 letters: dishwaters, dowitchers, ghostwrite, growthiest, handwrites, swarthiest, sweatshirt, switcheroo, swithering, thwartwise, tightwires, unworthies, washateria, washeteria, watchcries, wirephotos, witcheries, witherites, worthiness. | |
+4 letters: breadthwise, ghostwriter, ghostwrites, growthiness, headwaiters, otherwhiles, overweights, somewhither, stewardship, swarthiness, sweatshirts, switcheroos, unworthiest, washaterias, washeterias, weatherings, weatherizes, whitebeards, whiteboards, whitewasher, withershins, withholders. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Familiar 6. Usage Frequency 7. Names: Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
