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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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.
Suede has become an experiment in longevity, driving teenage feelings through a wizened motor.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 2, 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
Stewart’s first night back found him grayer — at one point he used his own wizened face as a prop in a joke about the presidential candidates’ ages.
From New York Times • Feb. 13, 2024
A former neighbor with a soft spot for his mother put him in touch with the most seasoned mechanic in the community, a wizened man who fixed all kinds of engines: boats, generators, trucks.
From Slate • Dec. 16, 2023
When Penelope saw the pale, wizened face in the darkness just outside the window, where no face had any business being—why, she recognized it at once!
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
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.
