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languish
[ lang-gwish ]
verb (used without object)
- to be or become weak or feeble; droop; fade:
Whether the plant thrives or languishes and dies is heavily dependent on the climate.
- to lose vigor and vitality:
Though she was once full of energy, her illness had caused her to languish.
- to undergo neglect or experience prolonged inactivity; suffer hardship and distress:
to languish in prison for ten years.
- to be subjected to delay or disregard; be ignored:
a petition that languished on the warden's desk for a year.
- to pine with desire or longing.
- to assume an expression of tender, sentimental melancholy.
noun
- Archaic. the act or state of being neglected, losing vigor, or becoming weak.
- Archaic. a tender, melancholy look or expression.
languish
/ ˈlæŋɡwɪʃ /
verb
- to lose or diminish in strength or energy
- often foll by for to be listless with desire; pine
- to suffer deprivation, hardship, or neglect
to languish in prison
- to put on a tender, nostalgic, or melancholic expression
Derived Forms
- ˈlanguishingly, adverb
- ˈlanguishment, noun
- ˈlanguishing, adjective
Other Words From
- lan·guish·er noun
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of languish1
Example Sentences
Other journalists and opposition activists languish in prison on similar charges.
Common sense, uncontroversial ideas tend to languish when attention has moved elsewhere.
Some of the authors most revered by their contemporaries now languish in relative obscurity.
Critical journalists continue to languish in prison and inside the courtrooms the breadth of the clampdown is on full display.
They see people just like them being elevated quickly to power while they languish, and they become envious.
If one could languish through life in the shell of a mere beauty that life would be a good deal simpler proposition than it is.
If a man be poor who wishes to have everything, then an ambitious and a miserly man languish in extreme poverty.
You who will not wish to see her languish—suffer—go mad—Thomas, I am not the raving being you take me for.
Their kings are without power and without glory; their subjects languish in indigence and wretchedness.
She would be left to languish and die in some awful Moorish prison.
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