whither

adv

1. (not-comparable)Interrogative senses.

   “Whither wilt thou wander, wayfarer?”

   “When as wee duely conſider, whether euery way leadeth, or wiſely ponder with our ſelues to what end we refer each one of our actions, and exact of our ſtraying thoughts a more ſeuere account of their wandering courſe, we ſhal find no victory ſo great, as the ſubduing of vice, nothing ſo hard as to liue well, no ſuch vneſtimable iewell, as an honeſt conuerſation: […]”

   “2. Out. [Second Outlaw] VVhether trauell you? / Val[entine]. To Verona. / 1. Out. [First Outlaw] VVhence came you? / Val. From Millaine.”

   “O Jove! he cry'd, for vvhat Offence have I / Deſerv'd to bear this endleſs Infamy: / VVhence am I forc'd, and vvhether am I born, / Hovv, and vvith vvhat Reproach ſhall I return?”

   “You vvill go avvay: VVhither vvill you go? and vvhat can you do? I vvould as vvillingly go avvay as you, if I knevv vvhither: But vve have no Acquaintance, no Friends. Here vve vvere born, and here vve muſt die.”

2. (also, figuratively, humorous, not-comparable)Interrogative senses.

   “VVhither at length vvilt thou abuſe our patience?”

   “And, if there fall out any preternatural immutations in the elements, any strange concussations of the earth, any direful prodigies in the sky, whither should they be imputed, but to these mighty angels; whom it pleaseth the Most High God to employ in these extraordinary services?”

   “Alas, / Whither has wandered now my partial tongue / When all remains untold which ye would hear?”

   “'Oh, Lancelot, Lancelot! whither are you forcing me?' / 'I am forcing you no-whither. God, the Father of spirits, is leading you! You, who believe in Him, how dare you fight against Him?'”

   “Whither now the DUP [Democratic Unionist Party]? In Westminster, Theresa May's minority government continues to rely on the support of ten DUP members for its very survival. But last week may well have seen the consequences as well as the high point of thumbscrew politics.”

3. (not-comparable)Relative senses.

   “[W]e beſche thee, leaue vs not comfortles, but ſende to vs thine holy ghoſt to comfort vs, and exalte vs vnto thy ſame place, whither our ſauiour Chriſte is gone before: […]”

   “[T]hou ſhalt diuide the vvhole prouince of thy Land equally into three partes: that he vvhich for murder is a fugitiue, may haue neere at hand, vvhither to eſcape.”

   “Jeſus anſwered, and ſaid vnto them, Though I beare record of my ſelfe, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I goe: but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I goe.”

   “This Book, it chaulketh out before thine eyes / The man that ſeeks the everlaſting Prize: / It ſhevvs you vvhence he comes, vvhither he goes, / VVhat he leaves undone, alſo vvhat he does: / It alſo ſhovvs you hovv he runs, and runs, / Till he unto the Gate of Glory comes.”

   “It vvas about the Beginning of September 1664, that I, among the Reſt of my Neighbours, heard in ordinary Diſcourſe, that the Plague vvas return'd again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, and particularly at Amſterdam and Rotterdam, in the Year 1663. vvhether they ſay, it vvas brought, ſome ſaid from Italy, others from the Levant […]”

4. (not-comparable)Relative senses.

   “And with the same grave countenance he hurried through his breakfast and drove to the police station, whither the body had been carried.”

5. (not-comparable)Relative senses.

   “Ah foole, goe vvith thy ſoule vvhither it goes, / A borrovved title haſt thou bought too deare.”

   “VVhether as He mounted up, the Nevvs He tells / To every Orb and Star; but chiefly to / Th' inquiſitive Spirits, vvhoſe ears and hearts he fils / VVith all the VVonders He had ſeen belovv, […]”

   “[H]is VVorſhip […] gave them proper Letters of Health, and from thence they vvere at Liberty to travel vvhither they pleaſed.”

   “Three days after, just a spark / From Paris, answered by a snap at Caen / Or whither reached the telegraphic wire: / "Quickly to Paris! On arrival, learn / Why you are wanted!" Curt and critical!”

noun

1. (formal)A place to which someone or something goes; also, a condition to which someone or something moves.

   “To knovv the local beginnings of vvinds, is a thing vvhich requires a deep ſearch and Inquiſition, ſeeing that the VVhence and VVhither of vvinds, are things noted even in Scripture to be abſtruſe and hidden.”

   “Mr. [Henry Charles] Carey usually gives his reader a bird's-eye retrospect, from his balloon at the end of each stage, of the where and whither or the zigzags and dark passages of the route gone over from the starting-point, where was the man upon a solitary island picking fruit, down to his present stopping-place.”

   “The whence and whither of their comings and goings made no impression on the community, and when they disappeared no one asked how or why.”

2. (British, Scotland, dialectal, especially)A state of rushed action; a haste, a hurry; also, a state of anger or excitement.
3. (British, Scotland, dialectal, especially)A forceful blow or hit.
4. (British, Scotland, dialectal, especially)An act of shaking (vigorously); a shiver, a tremble; also, a slight bout of discomfort or illness.
5. (British, Scotland, dialectal, especially)The sound of something moving quickly; a rush, a whiz.
6. (British, Scotland, dialectal, especially)A gust of wind; a bluster.

   “I felt sure now that I was in the pensionnat—sure by the beating rain on the easement; sure by the ‘wuther’ of wind amongst trees, denoting a garden outside; sure by the chill, the whiteness, the solitude, amidst which I lay.”

verb

1. (British, Scotland, dialectal, especially, transitive)To cause (someone) to hurry; to hasten, to hurry.
2. (British, Scotland, dialectal, especially, transitive)To throw (something) forcefully; to hurl; also, to beat, to thrash.
3. (British, Scotland, dialectal, especially, intransitive)To shake (vigorously); to tremble.
4. (British, Scotland, dialectal, especially, intransitive)To move quickly, to rush, to whiz; also, to make a rushing sound; to whizz.
5. (British, Scotland, dialectal, especially, intransitive)Of the wind: to blow loudly and vigorously; to bluster; also, of an animal, etc.: to make a loud noise; to bellow, to roar.