Lan"guish (?), v. i. [imp. & p.
p. Languished (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Languishing.] [OE. languishen, languissen, F.
languir, L. languere; cf. Gr. &?; to slacken, &?;
slack, Icel. lakra to lag behind; prob. akin to E. lag,
lax, and perh. to E. slack. See -ish.]
1. To become languid or weak; to lose strength
or animation; to be or become dull, feeble or spiritless; to pine
away; to wither or fade.
We . . . do languish of such
diseases.
2 Esdras viii. 31.
Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.
Pope.
For the fields of Heshbon
languish.
Is. xvi. 8.
2. To assume an expression of weariness or
tender grief, appealing for sympathy. Tennyson.
Syn. -- To pine; wither; fade; droop; faint.
Lan"guish (?), v. i. To cause to
droop or pine. [Obs.] Shak. Dryden.
Lan"guish, n. See
Languishment. [Obs. or Poetic]
What, of death, too,
That rids our dogs of languish ?
Shak.
And the blue languish of soft Allia's
eye.
Pope.
