wither on the vine
Verb
Meaning
wither on the vine (third-person singular simple present withers on the vine, present participle withering on the vine, simple past and past participle withered on the vine)
(idiomatic) To be unsuccessful due to neglect or inaction.
Synonyms
Examples
My feeling is that poetry will wither on the vine if you don't regularly come back to the simplest fundamentals of the poem: rhythm, rhyme, simple subjects - love, death, war.
I feel like a hostage to fortune. Not that I am complaining. I wanted to play the role. But in truth I didn't think the show would be such a success. OK, I thought it would fail. Not because it was bad. I was confident it was good, but plenty of good things just sort of wither on the vine.
If you don't learn constantly, you don't grow and you will wither. Too many people wither on the vine. Sure, it gets a little harder as you get older, but new experiences and new challenges keep it fresh.
When you remove the risk, you remove the challenge. When you remove the challenge, you wither on the vine.