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The English idiomatic phrase to wither on the vine is used in the context of something or someone who is neglected or ignored. Can anyone please suggest an equivalent idiomatic expression in Italian?

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    Welcome to Italian.SE!
    – Charo
    Dec 24, 2018 at 18:39

1 Answer 1

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The Cambridge Dictionary says:

If something withers on the vine, it is destroyed very gradually, usually because no one does anything to help or support it:
When the new resort was built, the tourist trade in smaller hotels withered on the vine.

In Italian we could express the same concept using idioms like:

Si è sciolto come neve al sole (It melted like snow under the sun)

Svanire in una bolla di sapone (To vanish like a bubble)

Lo shopping online porterà all’estinzione i piccoli negozi (Online shopping will drive small shops to extinction)

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    The idiom about the soap bubble describes something far more abrupt than the “wither on the vine” one, it seems to me (and partially so for that about the snow).
    – DaG
    Dec 25, 2018 at 10:09
  • @DaG So far I didn’t manage to find something better ; feel free to improve the answer, as usual
    – abarisone
    Dec 25, 2018 at 10:12
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    Sì consuma come candela?
    – Alchimista
    Jan 19, 2019 at 11:54

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