different between dissipate vs dwindle

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dissipatus, past participle of dissipare, also written dissupare (“to scatter, disperse, demolish, destroy, squander, dissipate”), from dis- (“apart”) + supare (“to throw”), also in comp. insipare (“to throw into”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?s?pe?t/

Verb

dissipate (third-person singular simple present dissipates, present participle dissipating, simple past and past participle dissipated)

1. (transitive) To drive away, disperse.
   • August 1773, James Cook, journal entry

     I soon dissipated his fears.

   • 1817, William Hazlitt, The Round Table

     The extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy.

2. (transitive) To use up or waste; squander.
   • 1679-1715, Gilbert Burnet, History of the Reformation

     The vast wealth […] was in three years dissipated.

   • 1931, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Babylon Revisited

     So much for the effort and ingenuity of Montmartre. All the catering to vice and waste was on an utterly childish scale, and he suddenly realized the meaning of the word "dissipate"—to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing out of something.
3. (intransitive) To vanish by dispersion.
4. (physics) To cause energy to be lost through its conversion to heat.
5. (intransitive, colloquial, dated) To be dissolute in conduct.

Related terms

• dissipation

Translations

Further reading

• dissipate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• dissipate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• “dissipate”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Italian

Verb

dissipate

1. second-person plural present indicative of dissipare
2. second-person plural imperative of dissipare
3. feminine plural of dissipato

Latin

Verb

dissip?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dissip?

English

Etymology

Frequentative form of dwine, from Middle English dwinen, from Old English dw?nan (“to waste away”), equivalent to dwine +? -le, akin to Old Norse dvena/dvína (Danish tvine (“to pine away”), Dutch verdwijnen (“to disappear, dwindle”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?dw?n.d?l/
• Rhymes: -?nd?l

Verb

dwindle (third-person singular simple present dwindles, present participle dwindling, simple past and past participle dwindled)

1. (intransitive) To decrease, shrink, diminish, reduce in size or intensity.
   • 1802, T. Paynell (translator), Erasmus, The Complaint of Peace

     [E]very thing that was improving gradually degenerates and dwindles away to nothing, […]

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To fall away in quality; degenerate, sink.
   • 1766, Oliver Goldsmith, Vicar, III

     The flattery of his friends began to dwindle into simple approbation.

   • 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress

     The larger the empire, the more dwindles the mind of the citizen.
3. (transitive) To lessen; to bring low.

   • Our drooping days are dwindled down to nought.

4. To break up or disperse.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• windled