on the wane

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Declining or decreasing in power, influence, or popularity

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

đang suy giảm hoặc mất đi sức mạnh, ảnh hưởng hoặc phổ biến

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: on the decrease
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The company's sales have been on the wane since last year

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “on the wane” mean?

Declining or decreasing in power, influence, or popularity Literally: on the decrease

Is “on the wane” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.