Vane vs Wane - What's the difference?
vane | wane |
(countable) A weather vane.
Any of several usually relatively thin, rigid, flat, or sometimes curved surfaces radially mounted along an axis, as a blade in a or a sail on a windmill, that is turned by or used to turn a fluid.
(ornithology) The flattened, web-like part of a feather, consisting of a series of barbs on either side of the shaft.
A sight on a sextant or compass.
One of the metal guidance or stabilizing fins attached to the tail of a bomb or other missile.
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,
* 1913 , Michael Ott, The Catholic Encyclopedia , "",
The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes less visible from Earth.
* 1926 , ",
(literary) The end of a period.
* 1845 , ,
(woodworking) A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
* 2002 , Peter Ross, Appraisal and Repair of Timber Structures ,
(label) To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.
* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
* Sir (Josiah Child) (1630-1699)
* 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby-Dick) , :
* 1902 , (John Masefield), "":
*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title=
, 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), :
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 , "":
(label) Said of a time period that comes to an end.
* 1894 , (Algernon Charles Swinburne), "":
To decrease physically in size, amount, numbers or surface.
* 1815 , (Walter Scott), (Guy Mannering) , chapter XIX:
* {{quote-web, date=2012-08-30, author=Ann Gibbons, site=Science Now
, title= To cause to decrease.
* 1797 , (Anna Seward),
As nouns the difference between vane and wane
is that vane is a weather vane while wane is a gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.As a verb wane is
to progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.vane
English
Noun
(en noun)Anagrams
* * * * ----wane
English
Etymology 1
The noun is derived from (etyl) ("-ig" being a derivatem suffix, "-er" the suffix of comparatives).Noun
(en noun)- 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, [...].
- His influence which was on the wane during the reign of Joseph II grew still less during the reign of Leopold II (1790-2).
- 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.
- The situation of the Venetian party in the wane of the eighteenth century had become extremely critical.
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, declineUsage notes
* When referring to the moon or a time period, the word is found mostly in prepositional phrases like (term) or (term).Verb
(wan)- You saw but sorrow in its waning form.
- Land and trade ever will wax and wane together.
- 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.
- And in the cool twilight when the sea-winds wane
“Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./1/1
- The skies may hold not the splendour of sundown fast; / It wanes into twilight as dawn dies down into day.
- The fall of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing of one moon-spot after another, as the moon wanes .
- Fast as autumn days toward winter: yet it seems//Here that autumn wanes not, here that woods and streams
- The snow which had been for some time waning , had given way entirely under the fresh gale of the preceding night.
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.}}
- (Ben Jonson)
Letter to Mrs Childers of Yorkshire:
- Proud once and princely was the mansion, ere a succession of spendthrifts waned away its splendour.