languish

verb

lan·​guish ˈlaŋ-gwish How to pronounce languish (audio)
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 eyesEdith Wharton
languisher noun
languishingly adverb
languishment noun

Examples of languish in a Sentence

older people, especially, were languishing during the prolonged heat wave
Recent Examples on the Web Cheaper than the $25 million house that is languishing on the market less than ten minutes away. Curbed Staff, Curbed, 17 Nov. 2023 For all the talk about converting New York City’s languishing office buildings into housing, just one neighborhood has done it on a large scale: the financial district. Matthew Haag, New York Times, 17 Nov. 2023 Plus, often enough, the dummies weren’t found immediately, were found damaged, or never found at all—one languished in the desert for three years before being located. WIRED, 14 Nov. 2023 Most recently, Meta lowered the age limit for its languishing virtual reality products, dropping the minimum ages for its social app Horizon Worlds to 13 and its Quest VR headsets to 10. Naomi Nix, Washington Post, 7 Nov. 2023 House Republicans have no apparent plan to unite the fractured GOP majority, elect a new speaker and return to the work of Congress that has been languishing since hardliners ousted Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at the start of the month. Lisa Mascaro, Farnoush Amiri, Stephen Groves and Keving Freking The Associated Press, Arkansas Online, 21 Oct. 2023 The sprawling nine-bedroom estate at the heart of the real estate war has languished empty for the last two years. Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 3 Nov. 2023 But Connor and thousands of other Californians have been languishing on a waitlist. Emily Alpert Reyes, Los Angeles Times, 1 Nov. 2023 Boeing's Starliner is languishing and still hasn't flown any astronauts. Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 1 Nov. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'languish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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

Time Traveler
The first known use of languish was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near languish

Cite this Entry

“Languish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/languish. Accessed 3 Dec. 2023.

Kids Definition

languish

verb
lan·​guish ˈlaŋ-gwish How to pronounce languish (audio)
1
: to become weak or languid : waste away
languish in prison
2
: to suffer neglect
a bill languishing in the Senate
languishment noun

More from Merriam-Webster on languish

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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