fade

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

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪd

From Middle English fade, vad, vade (“faded, pale, withered, weak”), from Middle Dutch vade (“weak, faint, limp”), from Old French fade (“weak, witless”), of obscure origin. Probably from Vulgar Latin *fatidus, from Latin fatuus (“insipid”).

fade (comparative fader, superlative fadest)

1. (archaic) Weak; insipid; tasteless.

   Synonym: dull

   • 1825, Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, review of Theodric by Thomas Campbell

     Passages that are somewhat fade.

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

     His masculine taste gave him a sense of something fade and ludicrous.

fade (plural fades)

1. (golf) A golf shot that curves intentionally 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, page 88:

     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 a fade or a draw.

2. 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.

   Synonym: skin fade

4. (slang) A fight.
5. (music, cinematography) A gradual decrease in the brightness of a shot or the volume 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; covert departure.
   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     Ace could have done a fade. 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 present fades, present participle fading, simple past and past participle faded)

1. (transitive, golf) To hit the ball with the shot called a fade.
   • 2011, Gary McCord, Golf For Dummies, page 284:

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

2. (intransitive) To grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 24:4:

     The earth mourneth and fadeth away.

3. (intransitive) To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     [flowers] that never fade

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The 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 now faded, but the carpet, which had evidently been stored and recently relaid, retained its original turquoise.

4. (intransitive) To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.

   The milkman's whistling faded into the distance.

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →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 image fading 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.

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

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

   • 2021 December 29, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Problems galore in 2021...”, in RAIL, number 947, page 3:

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

5. (transitive) To cause to fade.
6. (transitive, gambling) To bet 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 would fade me.

• vade (obsolete)

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

From Middle English fade, fede, of uncertain origin. Compare Old English ġefæd (“orderly, tidy, discreet, well-regulated”). See also fad.

fade (comparative fader or more fade, superlative fadest or most fade)

1. (archaic) Strong; bold; doughty.

• Deaf, EDFA, FDEA, deaf

• Rhymes: -aːdə

fade

1. definite of fad
2. plural of fad

fade n

1. indefinite plural of fad

< Swedish fader (“father”)

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

fade (slang)

1. father

• isä (standard)

• “fade”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

• IPA^(key): /fad/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland):

  (file)

From Vulgar Latin *fatidus, blend of Latin fatuus and vapidus.

fade (plural fades)

1. tasteless, insipid
2. boring; lukewarm

• (lacking in interesting features): terne, insignifiant

• → Swedish: fadd

fade m (plural fades)

1. (criminal slang) share of loot / booty

fade

1. inflection of fader:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

From Latin fata (“the Fates”). See fada.

fade f (plural fades)

1. (regional) fairy.

   — C’est le trou aux fades, mon parrain.
   — Les fades ! 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 les fades ?
   — C’est des femmes qu’on ne voit pas, mais qui font du bien ou du mal.

   "It's the hole of the feys, boss."
   "The feys! 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”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

fade

1. inflection of fadar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• fad (particularly in southern Germany and Austria)

Borrowed from French fade, from Vulgar Latin fatidus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaːdə/

• Audio:

  (file)

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

fade (strong nominative masculine singular fader, comparative fader, superlative am fadesten or am fadsten)

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

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

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

2. flat (of carbonated beverages)

• “fade” in Duden online
• “fade” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

fade

1. inflection of fadar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

fade

1. Alternative form of faade
   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 71:

     Fade teil.

     What ails.

   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 84:

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

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

   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 13, page 90:

     He at nouth fade t'zey, llean vetch ee man,

     He that knows what 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, published 1867, page 39