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languish - 6 dictionary results

lan⋅guish

  [lang-gwish]
Use languish in a Sentence
–verb (used without object)
1. to be or become weak or feeble; droop; fade.
2. to lose vigor and vitality.
3. to undergo neglect or experience prolonged inactivity; suffer hardship and distress: to languish in prison for ten years.
4. to be subjected to delay or disregard; be ignored: a petition that languished on the warden's desk for a year.
5. to pine with desire or longing.
6. to assume an expression of tender, sentimental melancholy.
–noun
7. the act or state of languishing.
8. a tender, melancholy look or expression.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME < MF languiss-, long s. of languir ≪ L languēre to languish; akin to laxus lax; see -ish 2

Related forms:
lan⋅guish⋅er, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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lan·guish   (lāng'gwĭsh)   
intr.v.   lan·guished, lan·guish·ing, lan·guish·es
  1. To be or become weak or feeble; lose strength or vigor.
  2. To exist or continue in miserable or disheartening conditions: languished away in prison.
  3. To remain unattended or be neglected: legislation that continued to languish in committee.
  4. To become downcast or pine away in longing: languish apart from friends and family; languish for a change from dull routine.
  5. To affect a wistful or languid air, especially in order to gain sympathy.

[Middle English languishen, from Old French languir, languiss-, from Latin languēre, to be languid; see slēg- in Indo-European roots.]
lan'guish·er n., lan'guish·ing·ly adv., lan'guish·ment n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Languish

Lan"guish\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Languished; p. pr. & vb. n. Languishing.] [OE. languishen, languissen, F. languir, L. languere; cf. Gr. ? to slacken, ? slack, Icel. lakra to lag behind; prob. akin to E. lag, lax, and perh. to E. slack.See -ish.]

1. To become languid or weak; to lose strength or animation; to be or become dull, feeble or spiritless; to pine away; to wither or fade.

We . . . do languish of such diseases. --2 Esdras viii. 31.

Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, And let me landguish into life. --Pope.

For the fields of Heshbon languish. --Is. xvi. 8.

2. To assume an expression of weariness or tender grief, appealing for sympathy. --Tennyson.

Syn: To pine; wither; fade; droop; faint.

Languish

Lan"guish\, v. i. To cause to droop or pine. [Obs.] --Shak. --Dryden.

Languish

Lan"guish\, n. See Languishiment. [Obs. or Poetic]

What, of death, too, That rids our dogs of languish ? --Shak.

And the blue languish of soft Allia's eye. --Pope.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : languish
Spanish: languidecer, consumirse,
German: ermatten,
Japanese: 弱る
More Translations »

languish 
c.1300, from languiss-, pp. stem of O.Fr. languir "be listless," from V.L. *languire, from L. languere "be weak or faint" (see lax).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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