linger

verb

ˈliŋ-gər How to pronounce linger (audio)
Definition of lingernext
as in to delay
to move or act slowly since they were charging by the hour, the house painters lingered in finishing up their work

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of linger News of the accident prompted some fans to leave, but many lingered in the parking lot, shaken by the death of the worker. — James Cirrone, FOXNews.com, 4 Sep. 2026 Neal — who rushed for 206 yards on 57 carries while starting three of 10 games his rookie season in New Orleans — had been hampered by a lingering hamstring injury dating to the end of the 2025 campaign. — Gary Bedore, Kansas City Star, 4 Sep. 2026 The issue lingered late into the week, including the surreal spectacle of the SEC battling LSU in multiple courtrooms. — ABC News, 4 Sep. 2026 The lingering dilemma, which may prove no easier for a future jury to resolve, is what the law should make of someone who was both. — Eren Orbey, New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for linger
Recent Examples of Synonyms for linger
  1. delay
  2. drag
  3. crawl
  4. poke
  5. loiter
  6. stroll
Verb
  • Some of that January increase reflects workers who secured jobs during the final months of the previous year but delayed their start dates.
    — Tatiana Sataua, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2026
  • Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is pouring billions of dollars into developing a domestic tech ecosystem under his Vision 2030 program, even as some mega-projects are delayed.
    — Kelsey Warner, semafor.com, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of delay
Verb
  • Planning a trip between friends is like a game of chess, between coordinating schedules, budgets and other logistics that can drag on, no matter how fun the trip sounds.
    — Kathleen Wong, USA Today, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Any attempt to walk him ended with me dragged across the asphalt behind his drumstick legs.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of drag
Verb
  • In fact, agents are better equipped to do this than LLMs, as they can be configured more accurately to crawl certain sites or sources and therefore return more accurate results.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Their mother had crawled, wounded, on the floor before the brothers fired a final, fatal blast.
    — James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of crawl
Verb
  • Traditionally, there’s this rendering of hell as a dark cave with fire, and there’s the devil with a pitchfork poking everybody with it.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2026
  • With the help of Nollet, Anderson’s hair was blown and teased away from her forehead, with tinges of pink poking through.
    — Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of poke
Verb
  • The rock kids, the funk kids, the disco-ers, the club rats are all fleetingly conjoined by one pair of highly attuned ears loitering on the streets.
    — Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2026
  • Crowder was charged with one count of loitering with intent to commit a crime in connection with that incident.
    — Christina Coulter, PEOPLE, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of loiter
Verb
  • The setting is contemporary Paris in crisis, when civil unrest, rather amorphously presented apart from increasing numbers of military on the streets, makes evening strolls potentially problematic.
    — Jay Weissberg, Variety, 11 Sep. 2026
  • With a nod from the person at the desk, we were buzzed out and strolled straight onto the tarmac to mount up.
    — Andrew P. Collins, The Drive, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of stroll

Browse Nearby Words

line up
linger
lingered
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Linger.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/linger. Accessed 13 Sep. 2026.

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