languish
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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The division is under pressure to show quick results, but it has struggled to recruit prosecutors and has been slowed by an internal turf war that has caused some promising investigations to languish.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Places like Wigan - in Greater Manchester, Burnham's stronghold - often languish next to the bigger cities in whose shadow they sit.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
If you are withholding too much money, it makes sense to reduce that amount so you put that money in your back pocket in lieu of having it languish in IRS coffers.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
Nathan Hochman had let the case languish for nearly his entire first year in office.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
The good come here as well as the wicked, and all of us languish in this gloom forever, with no hope of freedom, or joy, or sleep, or rest, or peace.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
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Official readouts and state media reports have not said whether Xi and Kim discussed North Korea's nuclear weapons development, for which Pyongyang languishes under international sanctions.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
Tortora, meanwhile, languishes in squalid jail cells and a country with only a casual regard for habeas corpus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
Jenner is likely taking a significant financial hit on the property as it languishes on the market.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 17, 2026
Discovery has attracted interest from activist shareholders as the company’s stock languishes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025
Where there is too little of it, the flame of a candle burns dim; and where it is not freely supplied to a human frame, it languishes, and pines and sickens.
From Household Education by Harriet Martineau
Former state controller Betty Yee — who languished at the bottom of the polls — held on for a few more weeks before calling it quits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
His Palm Beach compound languished for six years and required $22 million in price cuts before it was sold, while his sprawling Oyster Bay compound on Long Island was recently taken off the market.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 3, 2026
The potential of iron-nitride magnets was discovered in the 1950s, but the technology languished for decades because it was hard to create enough magnetic material at scale.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
"UMG's stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business," Ackman said in a statement when the bid was announced.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
It’ll give me the feeling that I’ve accomplished something, that I haven’t just languished in the ER.
From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini
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A “negative output gap, a languishing labor market, soft real income growth and unambiguously restrictive monetary policy should alleviate concerns around sticky underlying inflation in the U.K.,” von Ahlen argues.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
Many exist only in manuscript form, languishing in the vaults of some library or monastery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Former attorneys in the division worry that other preexisting cases are languishing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2026
After languishing in development hell under Stanley Kubrick for two decades, the notoriously intense auteur deferred the project to Spielberg, believing he would be the right fit to tell such a complex yet tender story.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
“However, I have a feeling I’m not going to see the results of last night’s efforts. I don’t feel good at all. I think I’m languishing, to tell you the truth.”
From "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
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Vocabulary lists containing languish
"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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Refugee
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