languishing
[lang-gwi-shing]
- becoming languid, in any way.
- expressive of languor; indicating tender, sentimental melancholy: a languishing sigh.
- lingering: a languishing death.
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Origin of languishing
languish
[lang-gwish]
- to be or become weak or feeble; droop; fade.
- to lose vigor and vitality.
- to undergo neglect or experience prolonged inactivity; suffer hardship and distress: to languish in prison for ten years.
- to be subjected to delay or disregard; be ignored: a petition that languished on the warden's desk for a year.
- to pine with desire or longing.
- to assume an expression of tender, sentimental melancholy.
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- the act or state of languishing.
- a tender, melancholy look or expression.
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Origin of languish
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for languishing
Contemporary Examples
To this day, Tavakoli is languishing in prison for nothing more than demanding basic human rights.
Behind Bars for the Holidays: 11 Political Prisoners We Want to See Free In 2015Movements.Org
December 25, 2014
Languishing in a prison cell in southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, 21-year-old Razie Ebrahimi awaits her date with the gallows.
A former senior commander who was close to Mullah Omar, Ibrahim had been languishing in Pakistani jails for the past five years.
Freed Taliban Prisoners in Pakistan and Afghanistan Return to JihadRon Moreau & Sami Yousafzai
December 6, 2013
A year later, when I met him, he was languishing in the bureaucracy of our government.
A decade ago, Alber Elbaz was a designer out to prove that he had the capacity to revive the languishing house of Lanvin.
Historical Examples
All was languishing, and the King went away some time after.
The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, CompleteDuc de Saint-Simon
No fellow ever did dance so well as Tripletoe, or looked half so languishing.
Is He Popenjoy?Anthony Trollope
Nearly every one of my correspondents have been lagging and languishing.
Grace Harlowe's Golden SummerJessie Graham Flower
While the war was languishing in the North it was being carried on with vigor in the South.
The Land We Live InHenry Mann
But for many years the church lived only a languishing life.
A History of American ChristianityLeonard Woolsey Bacon
languish
- to lose or diminish in strength or energy
- (often foll by for) to be listless with desire; pine
- to suffer deprivation, hardship, or neglectto languish in prison
- to put on a tender, nostalgic, or melancholic expression
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Word Origin
C14 languishen, from Old French languiss-, stem of languir, ultimately from Latin languēre
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for languishing
languish
v.
early 14c., "fail in strength, exhibit signs of approaching death," from languiss-, present participle stem of Old French languir "be listless, pine, grieve, fall ill," from Vulgar Latin *languire, from Latin languere "be weak or faint" (see lax). Weaker sense "be lovesick, grieve, lament, grow faint," is from mid-14c. Related: Languished; languishing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper