And with no obvious threat to Western Europe, NATO bureaucrats and security intellectuals worry that the alliance might gradually wither.

Nuclear arms gradually wither away.

I refill glasses in the dining room and hall, watching the treasures of the castle gradually wither and fragment around me.

The installation will gradually wither.

An NSC Under Secretaries Committee, chaired by the Deputy Secretary of State, gradually withered away.

Major logging ended in 1919, the Soo Line abandoned the rail line to Glidden by 1925, and the town gradually withered.

The morning after Election Day Mr. Nader said, "Democrats must now either find their progressive roots or watch the party gradually wither away."

Unfortunately, what was otherwise a remarkably successful career in Cleveland, withered gradually.

Borgohain strives to prove the truth that life is an indefinite reprieve from death and to be alive is to gradually wither away.

But while certificates will endure, Mr. Breeden and many securities industry officials made it clear that they hope their use will gradually wither away.