Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Wane

Wane , intransitive verb

[Old English wanien, Anglo-Saxon wanian, wonian, from wan, won, deficient, wanting; akin to Dutch wan-, German wahnsinn, insanity, Old High German wan, wana-, lacking, wan{not transcribed}n to lessen, Icelandic vanr lacking, Gothic vans; compare Greek {not transcribed} bereaved, Sanskrit {not transcribed}na wanting, inferior. {not transcribed}. Compare Want lack, and Wanton.]

1.
To be diminished; to decrease; -- contrasted with wax, and especially applied to the illuminated part of the moon.
Like the moon, aye wax ye and wane. Waning moons their settled periods keep. — Addison
2.
To decline; to fail; to sink.
You saw but sorrow in its waning form. — Dryden
Land and trade ever will wax and wane together. — Sir J. Child

Wane , transitive verb

To cause to decrease. [Obsolete] — B. Jonson

Wane , noun

1.
The decrease of the illuminated part of the moon to the eye of a spectator.
2.
Decline; failure; diminution; decrease; declension.
An age in which the church is in its wane. — South
Though the year be on the wane. — Keble
3.
An inequality in a board. [Provincial English] — Halliwell
4.
(Forestry) The natural curvature of a log or of the edge of a board sawed from a log.