• (UK,US,Canada)IPA^(key):/feɪd/
• (General Australian)IPA^(key):/fæɪd/

  • Audio(General Australian):

    (file)

• Rhymes:-eɪd

FromMiddle Englishfade,vad,vade(“faded, pale, withered, weak”), fromMiddle Dutchvade(“weak, faint, limp”), fromOld Frenchfade(“weak, witless”), of obscure origin. Probably fromVulgar Latin*fatidus, fromLatinfatuus(“insipid”).

fade (comparativefader,superlativefadest)

1. (archaic)Weak;insipid;tasteless.

   Synonym:dull

   • 1825,Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, review ofTheodric by Thomas Campbell

     Passages that are somewhatfade.

   • 1827,Thomas De Quincey, “The Last Days of Kant”, inBlackwood's Magazine:

     His masculine taste gave him a sense of somethingfade and ludicrous.

fade (pluralfades)

1. (golf) Agolfshot thatcurvesintentionally to the player's right (if they are right-handed) or to the left (if left-handed).

   Coordinate terms:slice,hook,draw

   • 2011, James Lythgoe,The Golf Swing: It's all in the hands, page88:

     If you confine yourself to hitting straight shots while you are developing your golf swing, you are less likely to develop a preference for hitting afade or a draw.

2. Ahaircut where the hair is short or shaved on the sides of the head and longer on top. See alsohigh-top fade andlow fade.

   Synonym:skin fade

4. (slang) Afight.
5. (music,cinematography) A gradualdecrease in thebrightness of ashot or thevolume of sound or music (as a means of cutting to a new scene or starting a new song).
6. (slang) The act of disappearing from a place so as not to be found;covertdeparture.
   • 1991, Stephen King,Needful Things:

     Ace could have done afade. Instead, he gathered all his courage — which was not inconsiderable, even in his middle age — and went to see the Flying Corson Brothers.

fade (third-person singular simple presentfades,present participlefading,simple past and past participlefaded)

1. (transitive,golf) Tohit theball with theshot called afade.
   • 2011, Gary McCord,Golf For Dummies, page284:

     The Golden Bearfaded the ball from left to right with great consistency, so he seldom had to worry about trouble on the left.

2. (intransitive) Togrowweak; tolosestrength; todecay; toperishgradually; towither, as aplant.
   • 1611,The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London:[…]Robert Barker, […],→OCLC,Isaiah24:4:

     The earth mourneth andfadeth away.

3. (intransitive) Tolosefreshness,color, orbrightness; to becomefaint inhue ortint; hence, to bewanting in color.
   • 1667,John Milton, “Book III”, inParadise Lost. […], London:[…] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […];[a]nd by Robert Boulter […];[a]nd Matthias Walker, […],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […],1873,→OCLC:

     [flowers] that neverfade

   • 1963,Margery Allingham, chapter 1, inThe China Governess: A Mystery, London:Chatto & Windus,→OCLC:

     The half-dozen pieces[…] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. To display them the walls had been tinted a vivid blue which had nowfaded, but the carpet, which had evidently been stored and recently relaid, retained its original turquoise.

4. (intransitive) Tosink away; todisappeargradually; togrowdim; tovanish.

   The milkman's whistlingfaded into the distance.

   • c.1596–1598 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act III, scene ii]:

     He makes a swanlike end, /Fading in music.

   • 1856,Eleanor Marx-Aveling (translator),Gustave Flaubert,Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter XI,

     A strange thing was that Bovary, while continually thinking of Emma, was forgetting her. He grew desperate as he felt this imagefading from his memory in spite of all efforts to retain it. Yet every night he dreamt of her; it was always the same dream. He drew near her, but when he was about to clasp her she fell into decay in his arms.

   • 1976 August 25,Tom Scholz, “More Than a Feeling”, inBoston‎^[1], performed byBoston:

     So many people have come and gone
     Their facesfade as the years go by

   • 1968 December 8,Henry Cosby,Sylvia Moy,Stevie Wonder, “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, inFor Once in My Life, performed by Stevie Wonder:

     They say your love will surelyfade girl
     When things go wrong and trouble calls

   • 2021 December 29, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Problems galore in 2021...”, inRAIL, number947, page 3:

     And with that, I think we'll leave 2021's tail lamp tofade into the distance.

5. (transitive) Tocause to fade.
6. (transitive,gambling) Tobet against (someone).
   • 2016, Johnny Hughes,A Texas Beauty, Smart and Strong:

     I tried to get some bets that y'all were fixin' to get married but nobody wouldfade me.

• vade(obsolete)

• (grow weak, lose strength):weaken,wither
• (lose freshness, color, or brightness):blanch,bleach
• (sink away):decrease,diminish,wane

FromMiddle Englishfade,fede, of uncertain origin. CompareOld Englishġefæd(“orderly, tidy, discreet, well-regulated”). See alsofad.

fade (comparativefaderormorefade,superlativefadestormostfade)

1. (archaic)Strong;bold;doughty.

• Deaf,EDFA,FDEA,deaf

• Rhymes:-aːdə

fade

1. definite offad
2. plural offad

fade n

1. indefiniteplural offad

<Swedishfader(“father”)

• IPA^(key):/ˈfɑde/,[ˈfɑ̝de̞]
• Rhymes:-ɑde
• Hyphenation^(key):fa‧de

fade(slang)

1. father

• isä(standard)

• “fade”, inKielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki:Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland),2004–, retrieved2023-07-02

• IPA^(key):/fad/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio(Switzerland):

  (file)

FromVulgar Latin*fatidus,blend ofLatinfatuus andvapidus.

fade (pluralfades)

1. tasteless,insipid
2. boring;lukewarm

• (lacking in interesting features):terne,insignifiant

• → Swedish:fadd

fade m (pluralfades)

1. (criminalslang)share ofloot /booty

fade

1. inflection offader:
   1. first/third-personsingularpresentindicative/subjunctive
   2. second-personsingularimperative

FromLatinfata(“the Fates”). Seefada.

fade f (pluralfades)

1. (regional)fairy.

   — C’est le trou auxfades, mon parrain.
   — Lesfades ! N’est-ce pas les fées que tu veux dire ?
   — Je ne connais pas les fées, mon parrain.
   — Mais, qu’est-ce que c’est que lesfades ?
   — C’est des femmes qu’on ne voit pas, mais qui font du bien ou du mal.

   "It's the hole of thefeys, boss."
   "Thefeys! Don't you mean to say fairies?"
   "I don't know the fairies, boss."
   "But what are the feys?"
   "They're women we don't see, but who do good or evil."

   (George Sand,Jeanne, 1844)

• “fade”, inTrésor de la langue française informatisé[Digitized Treasury of the French Language],2012.

fade

1. inflection offadar:
   1. first/third-personsingularpresentsubjunctive
   2. third-personsingularimperative

• fad(particularly in southern Germany and Austria)

Borrowed fromFrenchfade, fromVulgar Latinfatidus.

• IPA^(key):/ˈfaːdə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone:Pfade(only according to a regional pronunciation of this word)
• Rhymes:-aːdə

fade (strong nominative masculine singularfader,comparativefader,superlativeamfadestenoramfadsten)

1. bland,flavorless,stale,boring
   • 1922,Rudolf Steiner,Nationalökonomischer Kurs,Erster Vortrag

     Solch eine Volkswirtschaftslehre würde der Engländerfade gefunden haben. Man denkt doch über solche Dinge nicht nach, würde er gesagt haben.

     An Englishman would have thought of such an economical theory asbland. He would have said, "One doesn’t think about such things."

2. flat(of carbonated beverages)

• “fade” inDuden online
• “fade” inDigitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

fade

1. inflection offadar:
   1. first/third-personsingularpresentsubjunctive
   2. third-personsingularimperative

fade

1. Alternative form offaade
   • 1867,GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page71:

     Fade teil.

     What ails.

   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, inSONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page84:

     Well, gosp, c'hull be zeid; mot thee fartoo, anfade;

     Well, gossip, it shall be told; you ask what ails me, and forwhat;

   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, inSONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number13, page90:

     He at nouthfade t'zey, llean vetch ee man,

     He that knowswhat to say, mischief fetch the man,

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor,A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published1867,page39