languish

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“
Were not my languishing glances turned toward you Yes, but the languish was all for Mrs. Oswald, and not for me.

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Definitions (18)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. intransitive verb To be or become weak or feeble; lose strength or vigor.
  2. intransitive verb To exist or continue in miserable or disheartening conditions: languished away in prison.
  3. intransitive verb To remain unattended or be neglected: legislation that continued to languish in committee.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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This word has been looked up 159 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

languish:   languishing ·  languished ·  languishes
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English languishen, from Old French languir, languiss-, from Latin languēre, to be languid; see slēg- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English languishen, languissen, langwissen, languessen, from Old French (and F.) languiss-, stem of certain parts of languir (= Provencal languir = Italian languire), be listless, from Latin languescere, begin to be weak, become weak or languid, from languere, be faint, be weak; cf. Greek λαγγάζειυ, slacken, loiter, from λαγαρός, slack: perhaps akin to English lag and lack.
  2. from languish, v.
 

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/ˈlæŋgwɪʃ/
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