languish

Definitions


[ˈlaŋɡwɪʃ], (Verb)

Definitions:
- (of a person, animal, or plant) lose or lack vitality; grow weak
(e.g: plants may appear to be languishing simply because they are dormant)

- be forced to remain in an unpleasant place or situation
(e.g: he has been languishing in jail since 1974)


Phrases:

Origin:
Middle English (in the sense ‘become faint, feeble, or ill’): from Old French languiss-, lengthened stem of languir ‘languish’, from a variant of Latin languere, related to laxus ‘loose, lax’




definition by Oxford Dictionaries