languish

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   become feeble

   The prisoner has be languishing for years in the dungeon.

2. 2
   verb

   To pine away in longing for something; to have low spirits, especially from lovesickness.

   He languished without his girlfriend.

3. 3
   verb

   To live in miserable or disheartening conditions.

   He languished in prison for years.

4. 4
   verb

   To be neglected; to make little progress, be unsuccessful.

   The case languished for years before coming to trial.

Simplified etymology

Languish is recorded in Middle English and is traced here ultimately to Latin laxus, meaning “loose” or “lax.” Its early senses included becoming faint, weak, or ill; by the early 18th century it could also mean assuming a languid or sentimentally tender expression.

From Middle English languysshen, from the present participle stem of Anglo-Norman and Middle French languir, from Late Latin languīre, alteration of Latin languēre (“to be faint, unwell”). : Compare languor and lax. : Cognate with slack.

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