languish

Borrowed from the present participle stem of Anglo-Norman and Middle French languir, from Late Latin *languire, alteration of Latin languēre (“to be faint, unwell”).

Compare languor and lax.

Cognate with slack.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪʃ/
• Rhymes: -æŋɡwɪʃ

languish (third-person singular simple present languishes, present participle languishing, simple past and past participle languished)

1. (intransitive) To lose strength and become weak; to be in a state of weakness or sickness. [from 14th c.]
   • Bible, 2 Esdras viii. 31

     We […] do languish of such diseases.

2. (intransitive) To pine away in longing for something; to have low spirits, especially from lovesickness. [from 14th c.]

   He languished without his girlfriend

3. (intransitive) To live in miserable or disheartening conditions. [from 15th c.]

   He languished in prison for years

4. (intransitive) To be neglected; to make little progress, be unsuccessful. [from 17th c.]

   The case languished for years before coming to trial.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To make weak; to weaken, devastate. [15th-17th c.]
6. (intransitive, now rare) To affect a languid air, especially disingenuously. [from 18th c.]
   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma

     He is an excellent young man, and will suit Harriet exactly: it will be an "exactly so," as he says himself; but he does sigh and languish, and study for compliments rather more than I could endure as a principal.

   • a. 1833, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Eleänore”, in Poems, page 31:

     His bowstring slackened, languid Love, / Leaning his cheek upon his hand, / Droops both his wings, regarding thee, / And so would languish evermore, / Serene, imperial Eleänore.

• languid
• languor
• languorous

• haulings, haulsing, nilghaus