fade
Americanverb (used without object)
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to lose brightness or vividness of color.
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to become dim, as light, or lose brightness of illumination.
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to lose freshness, vigor, strength, or health.
The tulips have faded.
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to disappear or die gradually (often followed by away orout ).
His anger faded away.
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Movies, Television.
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to appear gradually, especially by becoming lighter (usually followed byin ).
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to disappear gradually, especially by becoming darker (usually followed byout ).
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Broadcasting, Recording.
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to increase gradually in volume of sound, as in recording or broadcasting music, dialogue, etc. (usually followed byin ).
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to decrease gradually in volume of sound (usually followed byout ).
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Football. (of an offensive back, especially a quarterback) to move back toward one's own goal line, usually with the intent to pass, after receiving the snapback from center or a hand-off or lateral pass behind the line of scrimmage (usually followed byback ).
The quarterback was tackled while fading back for a pass.
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(of an automotive brake) to undergo brake fade.
verb (used with object)
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to cause to fade.
Sunshine faded the drapes.
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Movies, Television.
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to cause (a scene) to appear gradually (usually followed byin ).
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to cause (a scene) to disappear gradually (usually followed byout ).
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Broadcasting, Recording. to cause (the volume of sound) to increase or decrease gradually (usually followed by in orout ).
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(in dice throwing) to make a wager against (the caster).
noun
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an act or instance of fading.
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Movies, Television Informal. a fade-out.
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a style of short haircut in which the hair on the top of the head is all one length, while the hair on the sides and back of the head is closely cut or shaved to a gradually shorter length from top to bottom, giving the appearance of the hair shading from darker to lighter.
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Automotive. brake fade.
verb
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to lose or cause to lose brightness, colour, or clarity
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(intr) to lose freshness, vigour, or youth; wither
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(intr; usually foll by away or out) to vanish slowly; die out
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to decrease the brightness or volume of (a television or radio programme or film sequence) or (of a television programme, etc) to decrease in this way
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to decrease the volume of (a sound) in a recording system or (of a sound) to be so reduced in volume
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(intr) (of the brakes of a vehicle) to lose power
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to cause (a golf ball) to move with a controlled left-to-right trajectory or (of a golf ball) to veer gradually from left to right
noun
Related Words
See disappear.
Other Word Forms
- fadable adjective
- fadedness noun
- fader noun
- prefade verb (used with object)
- unfadable adjective
- unfading adjective
Etymology
Origin of fade
First recorded in 1275–1325; 1915–20 fade for def. 5; Middle English faden, derivative of fade “pale, dull,” from Anglo-French, Old French, from unattested Vulgar Latin fatidus, for Latin fatuus fatuous
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.
That is the worst start from any West Ham boss in the Premier League era, with the back-to-back wins over Newcastle and Burnley in November - Nuno's only two successes - quickly fading from memory.
From BBC
The clip concludes with text promising the X-Men will return in “Avengers: Doomsday” before fading into the countdown to the film’s release.
From Los Angeles Times
Quantum memories help solve this problem by making quantum repeaters possible, allowing information to hop across a network through entanglement swapping rather than fading away.
From Science Daily
Talk of tariffs and aggressive drug-pricing regulation faded, giving way to headline-grabbing price deals between the White House and drugmakers that lifted two of the biggest policy overhangs on pharmaceutical stocks.
The thinking is that if Venezuela becomes the new hot spot for oil production growth, U.S. shale will fade into the past.
From Barron's
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.
