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Sink vs Wane - What's the difference?

sink | wane | Related terms |

In intransitive terms the difference between sink and wane

is that sink is to decrease in volume, as a river; to subside; to become diminished in volume or in apparent height while wane is said of a time period that comes to an end.

As verbs the difference between sink and wane

is that sink is To move or be moved into something.wane is to progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.

As nouns the difference between sink and wane

is that sink is a basin used for holding water for washing while wane is a gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.

sink

English

Verb

  • To move or be moved into something.
  • #(lb) To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.
  • #:
  • #(lb) To cause a vessel to sink, generally by making it no longer watertight.
  • #(lb) To push (something) into something.
  • #:
  • # To pot; hit a ball into a pocket or hole.
  • #*2008 , Edward Keating, The Joy of Ex: A Novel
  • #*:My sister beats me at pool in public a second time. I claim some dignity back by potting two of my balls before Tammy sinks the black.
  • To diminish or be diminished.
  • # To experience apprehension, disappointment, dread, or momentary depression.
  • #*1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula), Ch.21:
  • #*:I tried, but I could not wake him. This caused me a great fear, and I looked around terrified. Then indeed, my heart sank within me. Beside the bed, as if he had stepped out of the mist, or rather as if the mist had turned into his figure, for it had entirely disappeared, stood a tall, thin man, all in black.
  • #*1915 , , The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel , Little, Brown, and Company, Boston; ch. XIX:
  • #*:Peter's heart sank . "Don't you think it is dreadful?" he asked.
  • # To cause to decline; to depress or degrade.
  • #:
  • #*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • #*:If I have a conscience, let it sink me.
  • #* (1674-1718)
  • #*:Thy cruel and unnatural lust of power / Has sunk thy father more than all his years.
  • #(lb) To demean or lower oneself; to do something below one's status, standards, or morals.
  • #*2013 , Steve Henschel, Niagara This Week , April 24:
  • #*:Who would sink so low as to steal change from veterans?
  • To conceal and appropriate.
  • *(Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
  • *:If sent with ready money to buy anything, and you happen to be out of pocket, sink the money, and take up the goods on account.
  • To keep out of sight; to suppress; to ignore.
  • * (1721-1793)
  • *:a courtly willingness to sink obnoxious truths
  • To reduce or extinguish by payment.
  • :
  • (lb) To be overwhelmed or depressed; to fail in strength.
  • *(rfdate) (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:I think our country sinks beneath the yoke.
  • *(rfdate) John Mortimer (1656?-1736)
  • *:Let not the fire sink or slacken.
  • (lb) To decrease in volume, as a river; to subside; to become diminished in volume or in apparent height.
  • *(rfdate) (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • *:The Alps and Pyreneans sink before him.
  • *
  • *:It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.
  • Usage notes

    * Use of the past participle form sunk'' for the past ''sank is not uncommon, but considered incorrect.

    Synonyms

    * descend, go down * (submerge) dip, dunk, submerge * *

    Derived terms

    * sinker * sink in * sink like a stone * sinking fund * sinking head * sink or swim * sinking pump * sinking ship * countersink

    Noun

    (wikipedia sink) (en noun)
  • A basin used for holding water for washing
  • A drain for carrying off wastewater
  • (geology) A sinkhole
  • A depression in land where water collects, with no visible outlet
  • A heat sink
  • A place that absorbs resources or energy
  • (baseball) The motion of a sinker pitch
  • Jones' has a two-seamer with heavy sink .
  • (computing, programming) An object or callback that captures events; event sink
  • (graph theory) a destination vertex in a transportation network
  • Synonyms

    * (basin) basin, washbasin

    Antonyms

    * (destination vertex) source

    wane

    English

    Etymology 1

    The noun is derived from (etyl) ("-ig" being a derivatem suffix, "-er" the suffix of comparatives).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
  • * 1853 , , "Bartleby, the Scrivener," in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories'', New York: Penguin, 1968; reprinted 1995 as ''Bartleby , ISBN 0146000129, p. 3,
  • In the morning, one might say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o'clock, meridian -- his dinner hour -- it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals; and continued blazing -- but, as it were, with a gradual wane -- till six o'clock, PM, or thereabouts; after which, I saw no more of the proprietor of the face, [...].
  • * 1913 , Michael Ott, The Catholic Encyclopedia , "",
  • His influence which was on the wane during the reign of Joseph II grew still less during the reign of Leopold II (1790-2).
  • The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes less visible from Earth.
  • * 1926 , ",
  • It was very dark, for although the sky was clear the moon was now well in the wane , and would not rise till the small hours.
  • (literary) The end of a period.
  • * 1845 , ,
  • The situation of the Venetian party in the wane of the eighteenth century had become extremely critical.
  • (woodworking) A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
  • * 2002 , Peter Ross, Appraisal and Repair of Timber Structures , p. 11,
  • Sapwood, or even bark, may appear on the corners, or may have been cut off, resulting in wane , or missing timber.
    Synonyms
    * decrease, decline
    Usage notes
    * When referring to the moon or a time period, the word is found mostly in prepositional phrases like (term) or (term).

    Verb

    (wan)
  • (label) To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.
  • * (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • You saw but sorrow in its waning form.
  • * Sir (Josiah Child) (1630-1699)
  • Land and trade ever will wax and wane together.
  • * 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby-Dick) , :
  • I have sat before the dense coal fire and watched it all aglow, full of its tormented flaming life; and I have seen it wane at last, down, down, to dumbest dust.
  • * 1902 , (John Masefield), "":
  • And in the cool twilight when the sea-winds wane
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./1/1
  • , passage=And so it had always pleased M. Stutz to expect great things from the dark young man whom he had first seen in his early twenties?; and his expectations had waxed rather than waned on hearing the faint bruit of the love of Ivor and Virginia—for Virginia, M. Stutz thought, would bring fineness to a point in a man like Ivor Marlay, […].}}
  • (label) Said of light that dims or diminishes in strength.
  • * 1894 , (Algernon Charles Swinburne), :
  • The skies may hold not the splendour of sundown fast; / It wanes into twilight as dawn dies down into day.
  • Said of the Moon as it passes through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.
  • * 1866 , (Sabine Baring-Gould), Curious Myths of the Middle Ages , "":
  • The fall of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing of one moon-spot after another, as the moon wanes .
  • (label) Said of a time period that comes to an end.
  • * 1894 , (Algernon Charles Swinburne), "":
  • Fast as autumn days toward winter: yet it seems//Here that autumn wanes not, here that woods and streams
  • To decrease physically in size, amount, numbers or surface.
  • * 1815 , (Walter Scott), (Guy Mannering) , chapter XIX:
  • The snow which had been for some time waning , had given way entirely under the fresh gale of the preceding night.
  • * {{quote-web, date=2012-08-30, author=Ann Gibbons, site=Science Now
  • , title= Genome Brings Ancient Girl to Life , accessdate=2012-09-04 , passage=Denisovans had little genetic diversity, suggesting that their small population waned further as populations of modern humans expanded.}}
  • To cause to decrease.
  • (Ben Jonson)
  • * 1797 , (Anna Seward), Letter to Mrs Childers of Yorkshire :
  • Proud once and princely was the mansion, ere a succession of spendthrifts waned away its splendour.
    Antonyms
    * wax
    Derived terms
    * wax and wane

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) wean.

    Alternative forms

    * wain, waine, wean

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Scotland, slang) A child.
  • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) , of unclear origins, compare wont.

    Alternative forms

    * wone (Southern England)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (chiefly, Northern England, and, Scotland, obsolete) A house or dwelling.
  • Anagrams

    * * * ----