Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To lose brightness, loudness, or brilliance gradually.
  • intransitive verb To lose freshness; wither.
  • intransitive verb To lose strength or vitality; wane.
  • intransitive verb To disappear gradually; vanish: synonym: disappear.
  • intransitive verb Sports To swerve from a straight course, especially in the direction of a slice.
  • intransitive verb Football To move back from the line of scrimmage. Used of a quarterback.
  • intransitive verb To cause to lose brightness, freshness, or strength.
  • intransitive verb Sports To hit (a golf ball, for instance) with a moderate, usually controlled slice.
  • intransitive verb Games To meet the bet of (an opposing player) in dice.
  • noun The act of fading.
  • noun A gradual dimming or increase in the brightness or loudness of a light source or audio signal.
  • noun A transition in a cinematic work or slide presentation in which the image gradually appears on or disappears from a blank screen.
  • noun Sports A moderate, usually controlled slice, as in golf.
  • noun A control mechanism on a stereo that adjusts the distribution of power between the front and rear channels.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Strong; bold; doughty.
  • Pale; wan; faded.
  • Withered; faded, as a plant.
  • Insipid; tasteless; uninteresting.
  • To become pale or wan; lose freshness, color, brightness, or distinctness; tend from a stronger or brighter color to a more faint shade of the same color, or from visibleness to invisibility; become weak in hue or tint or in outline; have the distinctive or characteristic features disappear gradually; grow dim or indistinct to the sight.
  • To wither, as a plant; in general, to gradually lose strength, health, or vigor; decay; perish or disappear gradually.
  • Synonyms To droop, languish.
  • To cause to lose brightness or freshness of color; cause to lose distinctness to the sight.
  • To cause to wither; wear away; deprive of freshness or vigor.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To become fade; to grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.
  • intransitive verb To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color.
  • intransitive verb To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.
  • adjective rare Weak; insipid; tasteless; commonplace.
  • transitive verb To cause to wither; to deprive of freshness or vigor; to wear away.

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

  • adjective archaic Weak; insipid; tasteless; commonplace.
  • noun golf A golf shot that (for the right-handed player) curves intentionally to the right. See slice, hook, draw.
  • noun A haircut where the hair is short or shaved on the sides of the head and longer on top. See also high-top fade and low fade.
  • verb intransitive To become fade; to grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.
  • verb intransitive To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color.
  • verb intransitive To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.
  • verb transitive To cause to fade.

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

  • noun a golf shot that curves to the right for a right-handed golfer
  • verb lose freshness, vigor, or vitality
  • verb disappear gradually
  • verb become less clearly visible or distinguishable; disappear gradually or seemingly
  • noun gradually ceasing to be visible
  • verb become feeble

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English faden, from Old French fader, from fade, faded, probably from Vulgar Latin *fatidus, alteration of Latin fatuus, insipid.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French fader, from fade.

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Examples

  • Bernard Berrian, the Vikings' lone deep threat and a Frazier pet project, is giving new meaning to the term "fade route."

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2011

  • A couple of them went in places that I never would have chosen myself including what I think the very best thing is, which is the title fade, that piano piece sitting right over the opening credits.

    Trent Reznor Talks Academy Awards Theo Spielberg 2011

  • I'd just as soon let this title fade into obscurity along with the screwy novel it is based on.

    Home Theater Forum 2010

  • I'd just as soon let this title fade into obscurity along with the screwy novel it is based on.

    Home Theater Forum 2010

  • I'd just as soon let this title fade into obscurity along with the screwy novel it is based on.

    Home Theater Forum 2010

  • Here lakeside I have some rain fade using the Star Choice dish but it is a lot less than with my 4 foot in diameter pointing at 119 W and my 2 meter pointing at 110 W (which are as Tim knows are satellites used by DISH) (This post was edited by johanson on Mar 2, 2009, 1: 37 PM)

    Star Choice TV 2009

  • Here lakeside I have some rain fade using the Star Choice dish but it is a lot less than with my 4 foot in diameter pointing at 119 W and my 2 meter pointing at 110 W (which are as Tim knows are satellites used by DISH) (This post was edited by johanson on Mar 2, 2009, 1: 37 PM)

    Star Choice TV 2009

  • Here lakeside I have some rain fade using the Star Choice dish but it is a lot less than with my 4 foot in diameter pointing at 119 W and my 2 meter pointing at 110 W (which are as Tim knows are satellites used by DISH) (This post was edited by johanson on Mar 2, 2009, 1: 37 PM)

    Star Choice TV 2009

  • As they fade from the masturbatory male dream, their exoticism paled by the proof of proper, grown-up ladies who rarely have the look of someone yearning for the touch of a boy with back acne, lesbians are appearing more and more in the fantasies (occasionally sexy, more often domestic) of straight women.

    Up front: Eva Wiseman Eva Wiseman 2010

  • Somehow I suspect that Kyochon will NOT live up to the hype, and quickly fade from the foodblogger-topic-of-the-moment.

    Midtown Links (The “Can We Give Kyochon a Chance to Get Going Before We Say They Suck?” Edition) | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2010

Comments

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  • A "fade" or "faded" men's hairstyle is one that starts short and becomes progressively longer. In a hi-top fade the hair on the sides is cut off or kept very short and the hair on the top of the head is very long, similar to a flattop. In a low fade style, hair on the top is kept shorter.

    April 13, 2011