How to Use languish in a Sentence

languish

verb
  • This is a chamber where bills go to languish and die a slow death.
    — The Politics Of Everything, The New Republic, 6 Apr. 2022
  • The trick is to give them something to climb, or else their vines will languish in a mildewy mess on the ground.
    — Alex Testere, Saveur, 24 July 2024
  • Indeed, agents should languish in the 1950s at their own risk.
    — Kara Baskin, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Apr. 2022
  • Statham fell off and in 2019 Bautista first came aboard before the project once again languished.
    — Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 May 2023
  • Add a shower of bright herbs to liven up beans that have languished in a can in the back of your pantry.
    — Aliza Abarbanel, Bon Appétit, 6 Apr. 2020
  • But by the 1980s French Fumé began to languish as Sancerre started to soar.
    — Lettie Teague, WSJ, 29 July 2021
  • The deal languished at the end of Cooper's term and never advanced to the Metro Council.
    — Nate Rau, Axios, 7 Mar. 2025
  • The vote marked a pivotal moment for the bill, which has languished for over a decade in Congress.
    — Berkeley Lovelace Jr., NBC News, 27 June 2024
  • Watch her return to her small-town Rust Belt home and languish in the big vibes and wistful mood.
    — Julie Muncy, Wired, 25 Nov. 2020
  • Thirty-three of those projects have languished on the state’s funding list for more than a decade.
    — Emily Schwing, ProPublica, 4 Mar. 2025
  • Thirty-three of those projects have languished on the state's funding list for more than a decade.
    — Emily Schwing, NPR, 4 Mar. 2025
  • Today millions of refugees languish in refugee camps around the world.
    — Sabeeha Rehman and Walter Ruby, WSJ, 22 Apr. 2021
  • Householder let the bill languish for more than a year.
    — Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland, 9 Sep. 2020
  • But what about the long lines people languished in at customs?
    — Natalie B. Compton, chicagotribune.com, 19 July 2019
  • Despite the Supreme Court's ruling, the case has appeared to languish.
    — Faris Tanyos, CBS News, 17 Apr. 2025
  • At the time, the old mule barns had languished in disrepair for decades, and the empty street was used for parking.
    — Kate Marijolovic, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3 July 2024
  • Soon Wyse was able to zip up a Marc Jacobs dress that had languished in her closet for months.
    — Tatiana Boncompagni, Harper's BAZAAR, 21 May 2019
  • And at the same time, compassion isn't just letting (the homeless) stay there and languish.
    — Barnini Chakraborty, Washington Examiner, 15 Apr. 2021
  • The film has languished in development hell ever since Kevin Smith took a stab at the script in 1995.
    — Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, 4 Dec. 2019
  • So instead of guessing how long your catch has been languishing on a bed of ice, look to the freezer case.
    — Amanda Shapiro, Bon Appétit, 8 Aug. 2023
  • But the process often doesn’t work that way, and species can sometimes languish on the backburner for years—or decades.
    — National Geographic, 22 Apr. 2019
  • The company’s stock has languished mostly under $10 a share for the past two years.
    — Lorraine Mirabella, Baltimore Sun, 6 Aug. 2024
  • That may be the most common put-down of the White House dreamers who are languishing in the pre-primary polls.
    — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 11 Sep. 2023
  • The sprawling nine-bedroom estate at the heart of the real estate war has languished empty for the last two years.
    — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 3 Nov. 2023
  • SoftBank’s languishing share price leapt by 7% on the news of Elliott’s stake.
    — The Economist, 13 Feb. 2020
  • Without the votes to move forward, Greene’s attempt to oust Johnson may languish in the halls of Congress.
    — Melissa Cruz, USA TODAY, 28 Mar. 2024
  • Busch needs to play every day and languishing on the bench in the majors does his career no favors.
    — Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 2023
  • The Lions then hired Wood as team president, but have languished in a state of mediocrity for years.
    — Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press, 10 May 2023
  • Leclerc started from fourth in Japan with Hamilton in eighth, while in Bahrain the former secured his first front row of the season as the seven-time world champion languished in ninth.
    — Dan Cancian, Forbes.com, 24 Apr. 2025
  • Parallel effort languishes in House The Senate bill is one of two efforts this year aimed at shoring up money for the state’s safety-net providers.
    — Seth Klamann, Denver Post, 30 Apr. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'languish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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