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LANGUISH
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I. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they languish ... he / she / it languishes
Past simple: languished
Past participle: languished
-ing form: languishing
Sense 1
Meaning:
Become feeble
Example:
The prisoner has been languishing for years in the dungeon
Synonyms:
fade; languish
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Hypernyms (to "languish" is one way to...):
degenerate; deteriorate; devolve; drop (grow worse)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s PP
Derivation:
languisher (a person who languishes)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief
Example:
After her husband died, she just pined away
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "languish" is one way to...):
weaken (become weaker)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Derivation:
languisher (a person who languishes)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Have a desire for something or someone who is not present
Example:
I am pining for my lover
Synonyms:
ache; languish; pine; yearn; yen
Classified under:
Hypernyms (to "languish" is one way to...):
hanker; long; yearn (desire strongly or persistently)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "languish"):
die (languish as with love or desire)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s PP
Context examples:
I say that because eclipses are coming in your sign later in the year, and eclipses are in a hurry to make your life productive and happy—the universe does not like to see a relationship languish.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
In my love-lorn condition, my appetite languished; and I was glad of it, for I felt as though it would have been an act of perfidy towards Dora to have a natural relish for my dinner.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Then, too, existence for you must be a scene of continual change and excitement, or else the world is a dungeon: you must be admired, you must be courted, you must be flattered—you must have music, dancing, and society—or you languish, you die away.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
