languish
verb /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃ/
/ˈlæŋɡwɪʃ/
(formal)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they languish | /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃ/ /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃ/ |
| he / she / it languishes | /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃɪz/ /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃɪz/ |
| past simple languished | /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃt/ /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃt/ |
| past participle languished | /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃt/ /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃt/ |
| -ing form languishing | /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃɪŋ/ /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive] languish (in something) to be forced to stay somewhere or suffer something unpleasant for a long time
- She continues to languish in a foreign prison.
- [intransitive] to become weaker or fail to make progress
- The share price languished at 102p.
Word OriginMiddle English (in the sense ‘become faint, feeble, or ill’): from Old French languiss-, lengthened stem of languir ‘languish’, from a variant of Latin languere, related to laxus ‘loose, lax’.