Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The gradual dying of plant shoots, starting at the tips, as a result of various diseases or climatic conditions.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology The browning and death of a plant shoot starting at the tip, due to either disease or climate conditions

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a disease of plants characterized by the gradual dying of the young shoots starting at the tips and progressing to the larger branches

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

die +‎ back

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Examples

  • The team believes that the process, known as dieback, will begin when average global temperatures reach around 15C.

    Telegraph.co.uk: news business sport the Daily Telegraph newspaper Sunday Telegraph 2009

  • The direst predictions come from the British meteorological office's Hadley Center, where a team led by Peter Cox forecast a massive "dieback" of plants, killing the rain forest by 2100.

    Forests Are Not Green 2007

  • Mac -- I think you should add "dieback" to the labels.

    Posthuman Blues Mac 2007

  • Simply checking for "dieback," or if a tree looks to be dead, is not a good method of detection, Hahn said.

    mndaily.com - all articles lbain@mndaily.com 2010

  • Simply checking for "dieback," or if a tree looks to be dead, is not a good method of detection, Hahn said.

    mndaily.com - all articles lbain@mndaily.com 2010

  • A large-scale Amazon "dieback" is among a handful of potential events that could drastically intensify climate change, along with the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica and the breakdown of the Gulf Stream ocean current.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

  • At the time I explained that the Duke report, and the hypothesis that the dieback was a consequence of the herbicide Diuron, had some major flaws, including: "Only four of 21 potential sites were tested for Diuron.

    Jennifer Marohasy 2008

  • "dieback" normally observed following SCI and promotes the re-growth of the axons following injury.

    News 2010

  • Pruning in freezing weather can induce burn and then dieback on the roses, but you do want to get the vines done in the next month or so as they will bleed.

    January: the to-do list 2011

  • Brambles sent spiny stems snaking over the open surfaces, and weeds found rootholds in the gaps between frost-bitten edges, before collapsing in the dieback of autumn.

    Country diary: Bedfordshire Derek Niemann 2010

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