Withering means scornful enough to make somebody shrink. A withering look, withering scorn, withering in reply.
The image is a plant drying up under it, which is exactly the effect the word claims. It is used of looks, remarks and criticism. In military use, withering fire is heavy enough to stop an advance. Note wither, which is probably a variant of weather.
1adjectivewitheringScornful enough to make somebody shrink.
“She gave him a withering look when he walked in an hour late.”
synonyms: scathing, devastating
withering is a quality of scorn.
Middle English
widren
English
wither
English, today
withering
Built from
From wither + -ing. wither comes from Middle English widren, wydderen (“to dry up, shrivel”), related to or perhaps an alteration of Middle English wederen (“to expose to weather”), from Old English wederian (“to expose to weather, exhibit a change of weather”). 2 From Proto-Germanic: Dutch verwederen, Dutch verweren (“to erode by weather”), German verwittern, wittern (“to be ruined by weather; to erode”), Swedish vittra (“wither”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA