Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb To what place, result, or condition.
- conjunction To which specified place or position.
- conjunction To whatever place, result, or condition.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make a rushing noise; make a tumult in the atmosphere; roar, rustle, or whistle, as the wind; bellow, as a bull.
- To what place?
- To what point or degree ? how far ?
- To which place.
- Whithersoever.
- Where has now to a considerable extent taken the place, in conversational use, of whither: thus, it would seem rather stilted to say “whither are you going?” instead of “where are you going?” Whither is still used, however, in the more elevated or serious style, or when precision is required.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb To what place; -- used interrogatively
- adverb To what or which place; -- used relatively.
- adverb To what point, degree, end, conclusion, or design; whereunto; whereto; -- used in a sense not physical.
- adverb [Obs.] to any place; anywhere.
- adverb [Obs.] to no place; nowhere.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb To which place.
- conjunction To which place
- verb intransitive, obsolete, dialectal To
wuther .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word whither.
Examples
-
With these thoughts I reach the log cabin whither I am strongly drawn by the tie of a child to an aged mother.
-
* The move was one leaving no visible outlet, and till the following year it remained uncertain whither it might lead.
Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert, Formerly Ann Taylor 1874
-
'Gently, gently, my love – whither is your imagination carrying you?'
Belinda 1801
-
O Badi’a al-Jamal, dost thou not remember me nor say, ‘My sister Daulat Khatun whither is she gone?’
-
Presently, up came two of the cook’s boys in quest of fish and seeing Abu Sir, said to him, “O man, whither is the Captain gone?”
-
Mr. DeVere had indeed become worried about his daughters, when the storm arose, and, as they had left word whither they were going, Russ and Paul volunteered to go after them, taking raincoats and umbrellas.
The Moving Picture Girls at Oak Farm or, Queer Happenings While Taking Rural Plays Laura Lee Hope
-
Manor, and it was her custom to send me word whither she went, that I might set an archer or two behind and in front to guard her.
Puck of Pook’s Hill Rudyard Kipling 1900
-
She walked abroad daily in the Manor, and it was her custom to send me word whither she went, that
Puck of Pook's Hill Rudyard Kipling 1900
-
A pitying neighbor had given them their supper; and they were told that their mother had gone out early in the morning, soon after they had gone to business, and, re-appearing with a carter, had had her few possessions carried away, leaving no word whither she was bound, or message for the helpless children.
-
In the box was half a dozen books on German philosophy (in German), twenty books on artificial intelligence and "whither" computers, and another fifty books or so with such arcane titles as Scottish Crofters: A Historical Ethnography of a Celtic Village.
nathanscripps commented on the word whither
Whither tilth?
This is the question I've come to after first learning the word tilth in mid-2019. Since then, I have begun transitioning from 15 years in startups into the classroom as a middle school teacher.
December 8, 2020