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fade

adjectivenounverbadjectivecommon in dialogue

  • Canada//feɪd//
  • Australia//fæɪd//

A golf shot that curves intentionally to the player's right (if they are right-handed) or to the left (if left-handed).

adjective

  1. 1

    archaicWeak; insipid; tasteless.

    1825, Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, review of Theodric by Thomas Campbell Passages that are somewhat fade.

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

Etymology

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”).

noun

  1. 1

    A golf shot that curves intentionally to the player's right (if they are right-handed) or to the left (if left-handed).

    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. 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.

  3. 3

    slangA fight.

  4. 4

    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).

  5. 5

    slangThe act of disappearing from a place so as not to be found; covert departure.

    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.

verb

  1. 1

    To hit the ball with the shot called a fade.

    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. 2

    To grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.

    The earth mourneth and fadeth away.

  3. 3

    To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color.

    [flowers] that never fade

    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. 4

    To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.

    The milkman's whistling faded into the distance.

    He makes a swanlike end, / Fading in music.

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

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

  5. 5

    To cause to fade.

  6. 6

    To bet against (someone).

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

adjective

  1. 1

    archaicStrong; bold; doughty.

Etymology

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

Forms

plural
fades
comparative
fader, more fade
superlative
fadest, most fade
past tense
faded
past participle
faded
present participle
fading
third person singular
fades
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).