dwindle
5 synonyms and 4 antonyms for dwindle, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Verb — To become steadily smaller, fewer or weaker over time.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Antonyms
How to use dwindle
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
dwindling supplies
dwindle away
dwindling numbers
dwindle to nothing
Neutral and suitable for formal writing. It is intransitive, so a thing dwindles by itself; you cannot dwindle something.
Etymology
From Old English dwinan, to waste away or languish.
Full origin of dwindle →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between dwindle and decrease?
Decrease is neutral and can be sudden, deliberate or measured. Dwindle suggests a slow, unwilled fading away towards very little or nothing, and it is not used for a decrease someone caused on purpose.
Can you dwindle something?
No, dwindle is intransitive: numbers, funds and hopes dwindle on their own. To describe someone causing the reduction, use reduce, cut or deplete.
What does dwindle away mean?
It is an emphatic form stressing that something shrinks until almost nothing remains, as in savings dwindling away over the years. The away adds the sense of complete disappearance.
