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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

3 entries under this word

Languish

Lăn’guish, v. i.

verbintransitive

(lāng’gwish), v. i. [imp. & p. p. LANGUISHED (lāng’gwisht); p. pr. & vb. n. LANGUISHING.] [Fr. languir, p. pr. languissant, Pr. languir, It. languire, Lat. languere.] 1. To become languid or weak; to sink away; to lose strength or animation; to be or become dull, feeble, or spiritless; to pine; to be or to grow heavy. Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, And let me languish into life. Pope. 2. To suffer, as from heat or drought; to wither; to fade; as, in a dry season vegetation languishes. For the fields of Heshbon languish. Isa. xvi. 8.

  1. To grow dull; to be no longer active and vigorous; as, the war languished for want of supplies.
  2. To look with softness or tenderness, as with the head reclined and a peculiar cast of the eye.

Syn.—To pine; wither; fade; droop; faint.

Lăn'guish, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. To cause to droop or pine. [Obs.] Shak. Dryden.

Lăn'guish, n.

noun

(lăng'gwish), n. 1. The act or condition of languishing or pining away; languishment. What of death, too, that rids our dogs of languish? Shak. 2. A soft and tender look or appearance. And the blue languish of soft Allia's eye. Pope.