Meaning & use
languish
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To stay for a long time in a bad, neglected, or unchanging situation without getting any better.
Grammar: Takes no object and is usually followed by in, on, or at: languish in prison.
Patterns
- languish in something
- languish on something
- languish at something
The bill languished in committee for two years.
He languished in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Many talented players languish on the bench all season.
verbintransitive
To grow weak, droop, or lose strength, especially because of neglect or poor conditions.
Grammar: No object; the subject is the thing that weakens: the plants languished.
Patterns
- languish without something
- languish from something
The houseplants languished without sunlight.
Without proper funding, the local library began to languish.
The orchard languished through the long drought.
verbintransitiveliterary
To suffer sadly, wasting time or feeling sorrow, while wishing for something or someone.
Grammar: Often followed by for or in a place: languish for home.
Patterns
- languish for someone
- languish for something
She languished for her homeland during the long exile.
In the poem, the lover languishes beneath her window.
Word forms
| third person singular | languishes |
|---|---|
| past tense | languished |
| past participle | languished |
| -ing form | languishing |
Common combinations
- languish in prison
- Several activists languished in prison for years.
- languish in obscurity
- The novel languished in obscurity until a film made it famous.
- languish on a waiting list
- Thousands of families languish on the housing waiting list.
- languish at the bottom
- The team has been languishing at the bottom of the table.
- languish in poverty
- Whole villages languished in poverty after the factory closed.
- leave something to languish
- The city left the old theater to languish for decades.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stagnate
- Stagnate suggests no movement or progress at all, while languish adds the idea of suffering or being neglected.
- wither
- Wither stresses drying up and dying away, usually in living things, whereas languish can describe any long period of neglect.
- rot
- Rot is a blunter and more informal way of saying someone is stuck in a bad place, often in prison.
- pine
- Pine is about longing for something absent, which matches only the literary sense of languish.
Opposites
Word family
- languishing adjective
- remaining weak, neglected, or unhappy for a long time
- languid adjective
- slow and relaxed, with little energy
- languor noun
- a pleasant lack of energy or tiredness
- languidly adverb
- in a slow and relaxed way
Commonly confused: languish or linger?
languish vs linger
Linger means to stay somewhere or remain a little longer than expected, and it does not suggest suffering or neglect as languish does.
Practice
Which sentence uses languish most naturally?
Choose one answer.
Languish is intransitive and describes something staying neglected or stuck for a long time, so a proposal that sits unread fits. It cannot take an object, and it does not describe fast movement.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “languish”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.