( used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture; " dried- up grass"; " the desert was edged with sere vegetation"; " shriveled leaves on the unwatered seedlings"; " withered vines"

[ OE. seer, AS. sear ( assumed) fr. searian to wither; akin to D. zoor dry, LG. soor, OHG. sor/ n to to wither, Gr. a" y` ein to parch, to dry, Skr. / ush ( for sush) to dry, to wither, Zend hush to dry. Ã 152. Cf. Austere, Sorrel, a.] Dry; withered; no longer green; -- applied to leaves.

Dry; withered. Same as Sear.

Claw; talon.

Dry; withered; as, a sere leaf.

Dry, withered.

Same as SEAR.

Dry; withered. See Sear.

But Genius repels me, she " turns a deaf ear," And frowns on me scornful, the year after year; Perhaps if I sue, in the " sere yellow leaf," She'll open her heart, and yield me relief. – The Kings and Queens of England with Other Poems by Mary Ann H. T. Bigelow

Tolerably quick work, I think you will allow, my dear sir, for a man whose years have fallen into the sere and yellow leaf. – Charlotte's Inheritance by M. E. Braddon

A huge magnolia was trained over the front, and climbing roses and wisteria, all in the sere and yellow leaf or bare now; but I could picture the place in spring, when the diamond- paned bow windows sparkled through a canopy of flowers, when the great apple trees were like a pink- and- white sunrise of blossom, and underneath spread a carpet of forget- me- nots and tulips. – The Brightener by C. N. Williamson A. M. Williamson

But it lives in the air though we see it not; it lurks in the stone and waits the flash of the steel; it coils round the dry leaves and sere stalks, and a touch re- illumines it; it plays in the marsh- it collects in the heavens- it appals us in the lightning- it gives warmth to the air- life of our life, and the element of all elements. – Harold, Complete The Last Of The Saxon Kings by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

It was difficult to think of the Hotel de Luz as a place of normal residence, as existing at all except in the mental fantasias of Piranesi- it resembled exactly one of his sere vertiginous engravings. – San Cristóbal de la Habana by Joseph Hergesheimer

It was cold upon the river, and sere leaves, loosening their hold upon that which had given them life, drifted down upon her as she rowed beneath arching trees. – Audrey by Mary Johnston

Even the most machine- like of the sere and withered book- keepers held their pens in suspense as Haldane passed hastily toward Mr. Arnot's private office, followed by the reporter, whose alert manner and observant, questioning eye suggested an animated symbol of interrogation. – A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century by E. P. Roe

In spring brightly green, and spangled with wild flowers, by midsummer this prairie had grown sere and yellow. – When Buffalo Ran by George Bird Grinnell

She stands in her unholy oily leer A statue losing feature, weather- sick Mid draggled creepers of twined ivy sere. – The Complete Project Gutenberg Works of George Meredith by George Meredith

Sere and bony like a corpse Lay the son upon the lap Of his mother; opened wide Stared his pale and tragic eyes. – Atta Troll by Heinrich Heine

The shadows of rocks fell far and deep, and the brown dead fern was fluttering, and brambles with their sere leaves hanging, swayed their tatters to and fro, with a red look on them. – Lorna Doone, A Romance of Exmoor by R. D. Blackmore

It was an old, old hunting- coat, far gone in the sere and yellow leaf. – The Singing Mouse Stories by Emerson Hough

The scene- the bare road, the sere weeds and grasses, the prostrate prophet, the flushed faces of the two burly countrymen upturned to hers as they stooped, crushing him down- all was photographed on her mind by excitement. – The Mormon Prophet by Lily Dougall

They came to a sere, bare hillside on which neither trees nor brushwood grew. – Operation Terror by William Fitzgerald Jenkins

To their right lay a little ice- covered mere, with sere, brown reeds standing here and there upon its face, and at the end of it a group of stark pollarded willows, whereof the tops had been cut for poles by those who dwelt in the forest farm near by. – The Lady Of Blossholme by H. Rider Haggard

So shall there be nothing " sere and yellow" about him. – My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year by John Henry Jowett

And come ye mourners- very heaven weeps- With rue and rosemary from far and near, From Breton's capes and rude Columbia's steeps To spread the shroud upon your hero's bier While he who Laurel is will weave the cypress sere. – Vacation Verse by W. M. MacKeracher

I remember that when we first went to house- keeping Poultney Briggs was in the van of artistic progress, and that no one was to be mentioned in the same breath with him; yet now, apparently, he was of the sere- and- yellow- leaf order, professionally speaking. – The Opinions of a Philosopher by Robert Grant

But one Christmas legend the children do know: that on the night and at the hour of the Saviour's birth the cattle kneel in homage and the sere elder bushes, for a brief matter of miraculous minutes, break into a foam of bloom. – When 'Bear Cat' Went Dry by Charles Neville Buck

Another breath of wind ruffled the roses, and a few more sere leaves fell where he had just been standing. – Checkmate by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu