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Vanish vs Dwindle - What's the difference?

vanish | dwindle |

As verbs the difference between vanish and dwindle

is that vanish is to become invisible or to move out of view unnoticed while dwindle is to decrease, shrink, diminish, reduce in size.

As a noun vanish

is (phonetics) the brief terminal part of a vowel or vocal element, differing more or less in quality from the main part.

vanish

English

Verb

(es)
  • To become invisible or to move out of view unnoticed.
  • *
  • *:The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished , pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
  • (lb) To become equal to zero.
  • :The function f(x)=x2 vanishes at x=0.
  • Synonyms

    * disappear

    Derived terms

    * vanishing spray

    Noun

    (vanishes)
  • (phonetics) The brief terminal part of a vowel or vocal element, differing more or less in quality from the main part.
  • a as in ale ordinarily ends with a vanish of i as in ill.
    o as in old ordinarily ends with a vanish of oo as in foot.
    (Rush)

    See also

    * glide (Webster 1913)

    dwindle

    English

    Verb

    (dwindl)
  • To decrease, shrink, diminish, reduce in size.
  • * 1802 , , translated by T. Paynell,
  • [E]very thing that was improving gradually degenerates and dwindles away to nothing,
  • (figuratively) To fall away in quality; degenerate, sink.
  • The flattery of his friends began to dwindle into simple approbation.'' (''Goldsmith , Vicar, III)
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • Religious societies, though begun with excellent intentions, are said to have dwindled into factious clubs.
  • * 1919 ,
  • The larger the empire, the more dwindles the mind of the citizen.
  • * '>citation
  • To lessen; to bring low.
  • * Thomson
  • Our drooping days are dwindled down to naught.
  • To break; to disperse.
  • (Clarendon)

    References