wizened
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of wizened
Explanation
"You're looking quite wizened today," is a something you should never, ever say to your grandmother, no matter how shriveled with age she might be. Think of a caricature of a witch — not your beloved granny. The verb wizen has fallen out of usage, but the past participle, wizened, continues to function as an adjective meaning wrinkled and shrunken with age or disease. You will see lots of elderly, wizened faces at the park feeding the birds and watching the children play. Although you might expect that folks with lined faces have learned a thing or two, there is no etymological connection between wizened and wise.
Vocabulary lists containing wizened
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?" Vocabulary from the short story
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100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Grammy voters go back and forth with this award: Sometimes they anoint headstrong youngsters as rock’s great new hope; other times they congratulate wizened oldsters for staying in the game.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 30, 2025
But the admiring, even celebratory, tone of these paeans to hot actresses remaining hot well past Hollywood’s traditional expiration date masks the shadow side of this phenomenon: The wizened, terrifying hag.
From Salon • Jan. 23, 2025
This means that the youngest caterpillars are usually all black, while more colorful caterpillars tend to be the wizened, elders of a given population.
From National Geographic • Nov. 29, 2023
Cue the wizened locals ready to fleece them, the natural and man-made catastrophes, and you have all the makings of a bad sitcom, with Monocle meets Fawlty Towers as the log line.
From New York Times • Aug. 8, 2023
Her eyes misting, she touched my face with her wizened hand.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
