the.com/withered
What was juicy, now isn't — life's water bill, gone unpaid.
means Dried up, shrunken, and drained of vitality, whether a plant, a limb, or a hope.
from From Middle English wydderen, a variant of weather — what the weather does to things left out in it.
Weather kinSame root as weather, the slow eroder.
Not just plantsLimbs, careers, and withering glares all qualify.
Shakespeare loved itHis go-to word for age and decay.