- 1逐漸減少、日漸萎縮（人數、資源、希望等慢慢變少）
When something is dwindling, it is getting smaller and smaller, a little at a time — not in one sudden drop. We use it for numbers that keep falling (a dwindling number of shops), for money or food that is running out, and for hope or support that is slowly going away. Though actually, it almost always feels a bit sad or worried: the speaker can see the thing getting weaker, and they do not like it. You will hear it as a verb (the crowd was dwindling) and as a describing word in front of a noun (dwindling supplies). It is more a news-and-writing word than a playground word; in very simple talk people just say “getting smaller” or “running out.”
From the word’s history
From dwindle: dwine (Old English dwinan 'to waste away') + frequentative -le.
dwindle 源自古英文 dwinan「消瘦」，加 -le 表一點一點地。
組成From the verb dwindle (become smaller little by little) + -ing. Dwindle is an old English word; I will not guess at a further split.
同家族的字
- dwindlethe verb this -ing form comes from
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
dwindlingadj
- 1
declining; growing less
- There is dwindling support for New Labour.
- Yes, I am aware of the dwindling suppy situation. The supplies meant for the Resistance had to be diverted at the last moment, so we never received them.
dwindlingnoun
- 1
A gradual reduction to nothing.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。