languish

verb

lan·​guish ˈlaŋ-gwish 

languished; languishing; languishes

intransitive verb

1

a

: to be or become feeble, weak, or enervated

Plants languish in the drought.

b

: to be or live in a state of depression or decreasing vitality

languished in prison for ten years

2

a

: to become dispirited

b

: to suffer neglect

the bill languished in the Senate for eight months

3

: to assume an expression of grief or emotion appealing for sympathy

languished at him through screwed-up eyes

—Edith Wharton

languisher noun

languishingly

ˈlaŋ-gwi-shiŋ-lē 

adverb

languishment

ˈlaŋ-gwish-mənt 

noun

Synonyms

• decay
• droop
• emaciate
• fade
• fail
• flag
• go
• lag
• sag
• sink
• waste (away)
• weaken
• wilt
• wither

Examples of languish in a Sentence

older people, especially, were languishing during the prolonged heat wave

Recent Examples on the Web

Patients languish for hours in overcrowded emergency rooms, and ambulances struggle to handover new patients. —Katherine Hignett, Forbes, 27 Oct. 2024

The sport is languishing locally, with lower attendance, mutuel handle and foal crop (number of horses born). —John Cherwa, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2024

By contrast, Harris cuts a vigorous figure who stands to make history, clearly has an ability to get under Trump’s skin, and has performed exceptional CPR on what had been a languishing Democratic Party. —Philip Elliott, TIME, 16 Oct. 2024

Feathers McGraw was obviously the perfect candidate, having sat in jail for 30 years, languishing, thinking of nothing but revenge. —Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 12 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Anglo-French languiss-, stem of languir, from Vulgar Latin *languire, from Latin languēre

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

languish

verb

lan·​guish ˈlaŋ-gwish 

1

: to become weak or languid : waste away

languish in prison

2

: to suffer neglect

a bill languishing in the Senate

languishment

-mənt 

noun