languish
Pronunciation
  • (British, America) IPA: /ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪʃ/
Verb

languish (languishes, present participle languishing; past and past participle languished)

  1. (intransitive) To lose strength and become weak; to be in a state of weakness or sickness. [from 14th c.]
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, 2 Esdras 8:31 ↗:
      We […] do languish of such diseases.
  2. (intransitive) To pine away in longing for something; to have low spirits, especially from lovesickness. [from 14th c.]
    He languished without his girlfriend
  3. (intransitive) To live in miserable or disheartening conditions. [from 15th c.]
    He languished in prison for years
  4. (intransitive) To be neglected; to make little progress, be unsuccessful. [from 17th c.]
    The case languished for years before coming to trial.
  5. (transitive, obsolete) To make weak; to weaken, devastate. [15th-17th c.]
  6. (intransitive, now rare) To affect a languid air, especially disingenuously. [from 18th c.]
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary