as in faded
to lose bodily strength or vigor
older people, especially, were languishing during the prolonged heat wave
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Recent Examples of languished
Multiple lawsuits were filed in 2020 that accused the city of being slow in releasing records, and thousands of requests — mostly to the police department — have languished in an online portal.
—
Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 31 Aug. 2025
The Fifteen Year Journey to the Three-Year Degree After the idea languished for nearly a decade, Western Governors University (WGU) emerged as an early pioneer in 2018, demonstrating the viability of sub-120 credit bachelor’s degree programs by offering degrees ranging from 97 to 110 credit hours.
—Bryan Penprase, Forbes.com, 26 Aug. 2025
This masterly music might have languished in obscurity—like most of Riley’s other records, which remain high-price rarities in the vinyl market—but for Columbia’s reach.
—William Robin, New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2025
Created in 2019, the specification had languished in relative obscurity for years because the cheap, plentiful non-Express microSD cards were generally fast enough for the things that people were using them for, and because most hardware didn't support microSD Express cards in the first place.
—Andrew Cunningham, ArsTechnica, 15 Aug. 2025
Both bills, which have languished in the Senate since their respective 2015 and 2019 introductions, would block states from chipping away at anti-disenfranchisement and anti-gerrymandering laws.
—David Lightman, Sacbee.com, 14 Aug. 2025
Afterward, Streisand’s place languished on the market, eventually selling for $4 million — half of what Carey was said to have offered.
—Kim Velsey, Curbed, 13 Aug. 2025
The vehicle proved a laughing stock in the press, and buyers never showed up; while the Navigator moved almost 44,000 units in its first full year on sale, the Blackwood languished in showrooms, prompting Lincoln to axe it after one model year and just 3,383 sales.
—Will Sabel Courtney, Robb Report, 5 Aug. 2025
After rising during the economic rebound from the pandemic, housing construction has languished since 2022.
—Tobias Burns, The Hill, 18 July 2025
Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 31 Aug. 2025
The Fifteen Year Journey to the Three-Year Degree After the idea languished for nearly a decade, Western Governors University (WGU) emerged as an early pioneer in 2018, demonstrating the viability of sub-120 credit bachelor’s degree programs by offering degrees ranging from 97 to 110 credit hours.
—Bryan Penprase, Forbes.com, 26 Aug. 2025
This masterly music might have languished in obscurity—like most of Riley’s other records, which remain high-price rarities in the vinyl market—but for Columbia’s reach.
—William Robin, New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2025
Created in 2019, the specification had languished in relative obscurity for years because the cheap, plentiful non-Express microSD cards were generally fast enough for the things that people were using them for, and because most hardware didn't support microSD Express cards in the first place.
—Andrew Cunningham, ArsTechnica, 15 Aug. 2025
Both bills, which have languished in the Senate since their respective 2015 and 2019 introductions, would block states from chipping away at anti-disenfranchisement and anti-gerrymandering laws.
—David Lightman, Sacbee.com, 14 Aug. 2025
Afterward, Streisand’s place languished on the market, eventually selling for $4 million — half of what Carey was said to have offered.
—Kim Velsey, Curbed, 13 Aug. 2025
The vehicle proved a laughing stock in the press, and buyers never showed up; while the Navigator moved almost 44,000 units in its first full year on sale, the Blackwood languished in showrooms, prompting Lincoln to axe it after one model year and just 3,383 sales.
—Will Sabel Courtney, Robb Report, 5 Aug. 2025
After rising during the economic rebound from the pandemic, housing construction has languished since 2022.
—Tobias Burns, The Hill, 18 July 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for languished
Verb
-
When the screams faded away, Monica Santana and Maria Lema, who had driven down from Waukegan to scream, peeled off.—
Christopher Borrelli,
Chicago Tribune,
3 Sep. 2025
-
The legal sands shifted in the weeks and months after they were formally charged and days of demonstrations protesting his death faded out.—
Chris Ramirez,
jsonline.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The problem is that what gets cut isn’t always cosmetic, and sometimes the very safeguards designed to block harmful outputs, such as hate speech or criminal instructions, are weakened or lost.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
7 Sep. 2025
-
Meanwhile, the latest jobs report confirmed that the labor market weakened sharply over the spring and summer and that sectors most affected by tariffs have seen the biggest losses.—
Jason Ma,
Fortune,
7 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The Federal Reserve had been pressured to keep interest rates low to facilitate wartime financing, resulting in a dollar that sagged badly from its official gold parity.—
Nathan Lewis,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
That new equalized funding formula went into effect after a three-year transition period in 2024, when 44 groups each got $9,269, according to the three-year awards report.—
Claudia Levens,
jsonline.com,
8 Sep. 2025
-
Following in the menswear trend of the night, Lenny Kravitz went sans shirt at the MTV VMAs.—
Catherine Santino,
PEOPLE,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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But after spending nearly three decades sitting dormant in Philadelphia, the ship was sold to Okaloosa County in Florida, to be sunk and turned into an artificial reef.—
Danny Freeman,
CNN Money,
7 Aug. 2025
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George Rose/Getty Images A 2024 study by Stanford researchers found that the San Joaquin Valley, the southern portion of the California Central Valley, has sunk at a record rate over the past 20 years, plunging by nearly an inch per year between 2006 and 2022.—
Giulia Carbonaro,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Aug. 2025
Verb
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An ugly sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates sunk their struggling offense to new depths and at least temporarily removed Will Smith from the equation.—
Fabian Ardaya,
New York Times,
6 Sep. 2025
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Half an hour later Denio had worked the fish up from the bottom near their boat, where crew members sunk a large flying gaff into it.—
Bob McNally,
Outdoor Life,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
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At the conclusion of the state's case Wednesday, the defense moved to have the case dismissed, arguing the state had failed to prove its case.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
5 Sep. 2025
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So far this decade — according to Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science — the number of days that lows failed to dip below 80 degrees has already doubled compared to the 2000’s.—
Ashley Miznazi,
Miami Herald,
5 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Languished.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/languished. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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