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
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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.
Danielle Pinnock’s character, a Jamaican woman who is taken to America by a wizened older man she refers to as the “old raisin,” has a brassy boldness and bawdiness that also seduces the audience’s affections.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
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
The pining narrator of “Teardrops on My Guitar” feels miles away from the wizened woman singing “Midnight Rain,” who has realized that love and marriage won’t solve all her problems.
From New York Times ● May 30, 2023
And there was Billy, thin and wizened and slightly hunched, like a walking stick that had warped in the rain.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
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.
