withered — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Shrivelled, shrunken or faded, especially due to lack of water.

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.

   Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.

Adjective

1. lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness

   Synonyms

   shriveledshrivelledshrunkenwizenwizened

   Examples

   the old woman's shriveled skin

   he looked shriveled and ill

   More examples (3)

   a shrunken old man

   he did well despite his withered arm

   a wizened little man with frizzy grey hair

2. (used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture

   Synonyms

   dried-upseresearshriveledshrivelled

   Examples

   dried-up grass

   the desert was edged with sere vegetation

   More examples (2)

   shriveled leaves on the unwatered seedlings

   withered vines