to wither. This is the Dutch and German welken (to fade). Spenser says, “When ruddy Phœbus ʹgins to welk in west”—i.e. fade in the west.
“A wilted debauchee is not a fruit of the tree of life.”—J. Cook: The Orient, p. 149.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.