Forms: α. 4–5 fade(n, (4 fate), 5–6 faid(e, 6 feid, 4– fade; β. 5–6 vade. [a. OF. fade-r, f. fade FADE a.2]
1. intr. Of a flower, plant, etc.: To lose freshness and vigor; to droop, wither.
α. c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 697.
| For a flour þat semes fayre and bright, | |
| Thurgh stormes fades, and tynes þe myght. |
c. 1465. 12 Lett., 45, in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 2. An R for the Rose þat is fresche and wol nat fade.
1578. Psalm xxxvii., in The Gude and Godlie Ballates (1868), 83.
| For lyke the widderit hay sone sall they faid, | |
| And as the grasse that wallowis rute and blaid. |
1610. Niccols, Winter Night (cont. Mirr. Mag.), 556.
| The barren fields, which whilome flower’d as they would neuer fade, | |
| Inricht with summer’s golden gifts, which now been all decay’d. |
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 360.
| Rolls o’er Elysian Flours her Amber stream: | |
| With These that never fade. |
1704. Pope, Autumn, 29. Ye trees that fade when autumn-heats remove. Ibid., 69. The garlands fade, the vows are worn away.
1859. Tennyson, Lotus-eaters, 82.
| The flower ripens in its place, | |
| Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil, | |
| Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil. |
β. c. 1489. Caxton, Blanchardyn and Eglantine, liv. 212. Life began to vade, and death opproche.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, V. lxxix. 648. The leaves … do not vade and perish.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 613/1. Wee be not intangled in the state of this worlde, which is flitting, and euer vading, but resolutely wayte for the comming of our Lord Iesus Christe.
1597. Gerard, Herball, I. xxxii. § 2 (1598), 43. When the flowers be vaded, then followe the seedes.
fig. c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 354. Faded was al hir beaute.
1500–20. Dunbar, Contemplatioun, iv.
| Thy lustye bewte and thy ȝouth, | |
| Sall feid as dois the somer flouris. |
1655. H. Price, in The Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 261. Our expectation of the breach betweene the crowne of France and Cromwell, methinks, is fadinge by letters from both places.
1696. Tate & Brady, Ps. xvi. 11. And Joys that never fade.
1828. Mrs. Hemans, Graves Household, 23. She faded ’midst Italian flowers.
1878. B. Taylor, Deukalion, II. iii.
| Force is kind, | |
| That once oppressed, and honors fade unworn. |
† 2. To grow small or weak; to decline, decay, fail, or faint; to shrink, lit. and fig. Obs.
1388. Wyclif, Josh. xviii. 3. How longe faden ȝe bi cowardise.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. iii. (1495), 443. A manere ryuer that … fadyth in drye weder.
c. 1450. in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 104. Þou art þe lufe þat neuere sal fade.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 6 b. The heuenly rychesse, that neuer shall fade ne fayle.
1529. More, A Dyaloge of Comfort against Tribulacion, III. Wks. 1212. For as appereth in thapocalips and other places of scrypture, the faith shalbe at that tyme so far faded, that he shall for the loue of hys electes, lest thei should fall and perish to, abbredge those daies, and accelerate his coming.
1585. J. B., trans. P. Viret’s Sch. Beastes, C b. With the touch thereof [poyson] her heare, her eares, and nose, did fade.
† 3. trans. To weaken; to deprive of freshness or vigor; to corrupt, taint. Obs.
c. 1400. Usk, The Testament of Love, I. (1560), 272/2. Ne death, ne no manner travayle hath no power myne heart so much to fade.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 9188. A ffrele woman me fades.
c. 1425. Andrew of Wyntoun, Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, VII. i. 69. Set þow hawe fadyt þi Lawte.
c. 1440. York Myst., i. 132. For sum ar fallen into fylthe þat evermore sall fade þam.
1775. [see FADED ppl. a.].
4. intr. Of color, light or any object possessing these qualities: To lose brightness or brilliance; to grow dim, faint or pale. Also with away.
α. [1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 9294.
| Þ he so mochë sorow hadde | |
| Hys wrytyng was alle to-fade.] |
13[?]. Pearl (Gollancz), lxxxvii. 6. A parfyt perle þat neuer fatez.
1393. Gower, Confessio Amantis, III. 109. The mone is somedele faded.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 5309. ‘Qui fadis so þi faire hew?’ said þe faire lady.
1430. Lydgate, Chronicle of Troy, I. vi.
| In the Twylight when the day gan faide | |
| And Hesperus with her beames glade. |
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 8. Preamb. The Colours made with the which Orchell and Cork ben to diseyvable, that the same Colours may in no wise abide, but faden away to the great Hurt of all them that were to occupy any such Cloth so deceyvably dyed.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonnet xviii.
| But thy eternal summer shall not fade, | |
| Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; | |
| Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade | |
| When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st. |
1718. Freethinker, No. 63, 27 Oct., 53. The strongest Colouring will fade; and the most significant Words grow obsolete.
1783–94. Blake, Songs Innoc., Nurse’s Song, 13.
| Well, well, go and play till the light fades away, | |
| And then go home to bed. |
1801. Southey, Thalaba, XII. xv.
| The flame grew pale and dim, | |
| And dimmer now it fades, and now is quench’d. |
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xi. 74. A pale light now overspread the eastern sky, which increased, as we ascended, to a daffodil tinge; this afterwards heightened to orange, deepening at one extremity into red, and fading at the other into a pure ethereal hue to which it would be difficult to assign a special name.
β. 1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., Pref. in Ashm. (1652), 127. Colour whyen wyll not vade.
fig. 1792. Rogers, Pleas. Mem., I. 88. When nature fades and life forgets to charm.
1836. Emerson, Nat., Prospects, Wks. (Bohn), II. 172. When the fact is seen under the light of an idea, the gaudy fable fades.
1876. E. Mellor, Priesth., V. 208. The old Dispensation faded away in the dawning light of the New.
5. trans. † a. To lose brilliancy of (color). Obs. b. To cause to lose color; to dim, dull, wither. Now rare.
1559. Cavill, in Baldwin’s Mirrour for Magistrates (1563), B iv a.
| In largest seas sore tempestes lyghtly brue, | |
| The fresshest colours soonest fade the hue. |
1598. Marston, Pygmal., iv. 154.
| So haue I seen the march wind striue to fade | |
| The fairest hewe that Art, or Nature made. |
1658. Dryden, O. Cromwell, xv. No winter could his laurels fade.
1744. E. Haywood, The Female Spectator (1748), I. 270. Ill-nature is a greater enemy to beauty than the small-pox ever was; it gives a disagreeable depth to all the lines of the face; it sinks the cheeks; throws a disagreeable deadness, or a fiery redness into the eye, according as the malady proceeds from an excess of phlegm or choler; it swells the lip, fades the complexion, contracts the brow, and brings on a decay before the time.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), II. 587. With good management we may make an excellent use of the power given us over the ideas in our imagination, to shut out some, and dwell upon others, to join, to separate or compare them, to brighten or fade their colours.
1839. Longfellow, Hyperion, Prose Wks. (1886), II. II. iii. 81. The early autumn gives to the summer leaves a warmer glow, yet fades them not.
1864. N. Hawthorne, Doctor Grimshawe’s Secret, xi. (1883), 133. It is hung with old tapestry, or carpet, wrought with the hand long ago, and still retaining much of the ancient colors, where there was no sunshine to fade them.
6. intr. To pass away or disappear gradually; vanish, die out. Also with away.
α. 1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. v. 15. He stands amazed how he thence should fade.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 155.
| Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolue, | |
| And like this insubstantiall Pageant faded | |
| Leaue not a racke behinde. |
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, vii. And fades, as if into air, at my approach.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 10–1. As I saw the last blue line of my native land fade away like a cloud in the horizon, it seemed as if I had closed one volume of the world and its concerns, and had time for meditation, before I opened another.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 134. Religious animosity … would of itself fade away.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. vii. 68. I could see our eastern or Greenland coast extending on, headland after headland, no less than five of them in number, until they faded into the mysterious North. Every thing else, Ice!
1876. E. Mellor, Priesth., vi. 279. Other things and persons might fade from their memory, but their Saviour never, so long as that faculty retained its power or their hearts their love.
β. 1538. Starkey, England, I. ii. 35–6. Thys bodyly wele wyl sone vade and vanysch away.
1548. Hall, Chron., 117. The glory of thenglishemen … began … to decay, and vade awaie in Fraunce.
a. 1555. J. Philpot, in Pagitt, Heresiogr. (1648), 43. To my great griefe it [a vision] vaded away.
b. humorously transf. To vanish mysteriously.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, lx. 540. Florence Scape, Fanny Scape and their mother faded away to Boulogne.
† c. trans. (causatively). Obs.
1787. Mirror, 295. Those lineaments which time … had almost faded away from her remembrance.
