ppl. a. [f. as prec. + -ED1.] That has lost its freshness and vigour; withered, decayed, worn out.
1580. Baret, Alv., F 16. Withered, faded, flaccidus.
1595. Spenser, Colin Clout, 27. The fields with faded flowers did seem to mourne.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 602.
| Care | |
| Sat on his faded cheek. |
1725. Pope, Odyss., XX. 63.
| Now, pay the debt to craving nature due, | |
| Her faded powers with balmy rest renew. |
1775. Th. Percival, Philos., Med. & Exp. Essays (1776), III. 223. It smelled offensively, like faded cheese.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, xxxi. (1824), 705. The condition of Vivaldi, his faded appearance, to which the wounds he had received at Celano, and from which he was scarcely recovered, had contributed.
1820. Keats, Hyperion, I. 90.
| Until at length old Saturn lifted up | |
| His faded eyes, and saw his kingdom gone. |
1860. Farrar, Orig. Lang., vi. 116. ‘Every language is a dictionary of faded metaphors.’—RICHTER.
1874. Green, Short Hist., iv. 177. We see the frivolous unreality of the new chivalry in his [Edward I.’s] ‘Round Table’ at Kenilworth, where a hundred knights and ladies, ‘clad all in silk,’ renewed the faded glories of Arthur’s Court.
1892. Daily News, 8 Sept., 6/4. That unenviable cognomen of faded flowers.
Hence Fadedly adv.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, li. He found him in a dull room, fadedly furnished.
