fade

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fade/feɪd/

▶verb

• 1 gradually grow faint and disappear.

  ■ lose or cause to lose colour.

• 2 lose strength or vigour.

• 3 (with reference to film and television images) come or cause to come gradually into or out of view, or to merge into another shot.

  ■ (with reference to recorded sound) increase or decrease in volume or merge into another recording.

• 4 Golf (of the ball) deviate to the right (or, for a left-handed golfer, the left), typically as a result of spin.

▶noun

• 1 an act or instance of fading.

• 2 Golf a shot causing the ball to fade.

– derivatives
fadeless adjective.

– origin ME: from OFr. fader, from fade ‘dull, insipid’, prob. based on a blend of L. fatuus ‘silly’ and vapidus ‘vapid’.