languid

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlæŋɡwɪd/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlæŋɡwəd/
• Hyphenation: lan‧guid

Borrowed from Middle French languide (“fatigued, weak; apathetic, indifferent”) (modern French languide), or from its etymon Latin languidus (“faint, weak; dull; slow, sluggish; ill, sick, unwell; (figuratively) inactive, inert, listless”), from langueō (“to be faint or weak; (figuratively) to be idle, inactive, or listless”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg-, *(s)leh₁g- (“to weaken”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’ forming adjectives).^[1] Doublet of languish.

languid (comparative more languid, superlative most languid)

1. Of a person or animal, or their body functions: flagging from weakness, or inactive or weak, especially due to illness or tiredness; faint, listless.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fatigued, Thesaurus:weak

   • 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Venemous Serpents in General”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. , new edition, volume VII, London: F Wingrave, successor to Mr. Nourse, , →OCLC, page 191:

     he ſalt of vipers is alſo thought to exceed any other animal ſalt vvhatever, in giving vigour to the languid circulation, and prompting to venery.

   • 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 12, in Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G P Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 2, page 200:

     At first she "ran a temperature" in American parlance, and I could not resist the exquisite caloricity of unexpected delights—Venus febriculosa—though it was a very languid Lolita that moaned and coughed and shivered in my embrace.

2. Of a person or their movement: showing a dislike for physical effort; leisurely, unhurried.

   Synonyms: hasteless, unhasty, unrushed

   • 1818, John Keats, “Book II”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: T Miller,  for Taylor and Hessey, , →OCLC, page 94, lines 873–876:

     Loth was he to move / From the imprinted couch, and when he did, / 'Twas with slow, languid paces, and face hid / In muffling hands.

   • 1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXIII, in Lady Trevelyan (Hannah More Macaulay), editor, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume V, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, →OCLC, page 103:

     A consort was found for him in the royal family of France; and her beauty and grace gave him a languid pleasure.

   • 1928 July, John Galsworthy, “Son of Sleeping Dove”, in Swan Song, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, part II, page 108:

     Val watched his back, languid and slim, till it was out of sight …

   • 1946 January and February, 'Talisman', “Bückeburg to Aberayron”, in Railway Magazine, page 41:

     Darkness fell before we reached the Belgian frontier, and on through the night our train took her languid way.

3. Of a person or their actions, character, etc.: lacking drive, emotion, or enthusiasm; apathetic, listless, spiritless, unenthusiastic.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:apathetic

   • 1648, Joseph Beaumont, “Canto XV. The The Poyson. Stanza 179.”, in Psyche: Or Loves Mysterie, , London: John Dawson for George Boddington, , →OCLC, page 287, column 1:

     VVith ſecret Checks her languid Soule ſhe chid / VVhich vvith ſuch violence never yet did flame; / Her Eyes hung dovvn; her Cheeks vvere over-ſpread / VVith bluſhing (but vvith ô hovv guiltleſſe!) ſhame: […]

   • 1712 (date written), Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. , London: J Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iv, page 13:

     I'll haſten to my Troops, / And fire their languid Souls with Cato’s Virtue; […]

   • 1742, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Fourth”, in The New Dunciad: As is It was Found in the Year 1741. , Dublin: George Faulkner, →OCLC, page 14, lines 43–44:

     Harlot form ſoft-ſliding by, / VVith mincing ſtep, ſmall voice, and languid eye; […]

   • 1774 April 19, Edmund Burke, Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq. on American Taxation, April 19, 1774, 2nd edition, London: J Dodsley, , published 1775, →OCLC, page 72:

     Far from any thing inflamtory, I never heard a more languid debate in this Houſe.

   • 1816 March 23, Jane Austen, “Letter LXXXIV”, in Edward, Lord Brabourne, editor, Letters of Jane Austen, volume II, London: Richard Bentley & Son, , published 1884, →OCLC, page 301:

     I was languid and dull and very bad company when I wrote the above; I am better now, to my own feelings at least, and wish I may be more agreeable.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “A Quarrel about an Heiress”, in Vanity Fair , London: Bradbury and Evans , published 1848, →OCLC, page 181:

     George had an air at once swaggering and melancholy, languid and fierce.

   • 1848 April – 1849 October, E Bulwer-Lytton, chapter III, in The Caxtons: A Family Picture, volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1849, →OCLC, part I, pages 15–16:

     Too lazy or too languid where only his own interests were at stake—touch his benevolence, and all the wheels of the clockwork felt the impetus of the master-spring.

4. Of a colour: not bright; dull, muted.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dark colour

5. Of an idea, writing, etc.: dull, uninteresting.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:boring

   • c. 1803–1805, Jane Austen, “The Watsons”, in J E AustenLeigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen: to which is Added Lady Susan and Fragments of Two Other Unfinished Tales by Miss Austen, 2nd edition, London: Richard Bentley and Son, , published 1871, →OCLC, pages 308–309:

     ome very languid remarks on the probable brilliancy of the ball were all that broke, at intervals, a silence of half-an-hour, before they were joined by the master of the house.

   • 1865, Thomas Carlyle, “Winter-Quarters 1760–61”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume VI, London: Chapman and Hall, , →OCLC, book XX, page 152:

     He had written certain thin Books, all of a thin languid nature; but rational, clear; especially a Book of Fables in Verse, which are watery, but not wholly water, and have still a languid flavour in them for readers.

6. Of a period of time: characterized by lack of activity; pleasant and relaxed; unstressful.

   Synonyms: easygoing, leisurely, unhectic

   • 1764 December 19 (indicated as 1765), Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or A Prospect of Society. A Poem. , London: J Newbery, , →OCLC, page 12:

     Unknown to them, when ſenſual pleaſures cloy, / To fill the languid pauſe with finer joy; […]

   • 1834, L E L, chapter I, in Francesca Carrara. , volume I, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 1:

     Toil is the portion of day, as sleep is that of night; but if there be one hour of the twenty-four which has the life of day without its labour, and the rest of night without its slumber, it is the lovely and languid hour of twilight.

7. Of a thing: lacking energy, liveliness, or strength; inactive, slow-moving, weak.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:inactive

   languid breathing    languid movements

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, “Compendiously of Sundry Tenents Concerning Other Animals, which Examined prove either False or Dubious”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: , London: T H for Edward Dod, , →OCLC, 3rd book, paragraph 10, page 176:

     he ſound [of bees or flies] is ſtrongeſt in dry vveather, and very vveake in rainy ſeaſon, and tovvard vvinter; for then the ayre is moyſt, and the invvard ſpirit grovving vveake, makes a languid and dumbe alliſion upon the parts.

   • 1717, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book IX”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume III, London: W Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott , →OCLC, page 16, lines 325–328:

     hen the languid Flames at length ſubſide, / He ſtrovvs a Bed of glovving Embers vvide, / Above the Coals the ſmoaking Fragments turns, / And ſprinkles ſacred Salt from lifted Urns; […]

   • 1753 March 10, Samuel Johnson [et al.], “Number XXXVI. SATURDAY, March 10, 1753.”, in The Adventurer, volume I, London: J Payne, , published 1753, →OCLC, page 212:

     As love vvithout eſteem, is volatile and capricious; eſteem vvithout love, is languid and cold.

   • 1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “A Dream of Fair Women”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, stanza XXV, page 128:

     I knew the flowers, I knew the leaves, I knew / The tearful glimmer of the languid dawn / On those long, rank, dark woodwalks drenched in dew, / Leading from lawn to lawn.

   • 1894, George du Maurier, “Part First”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, pages 11–12:

     His thick, heavy, languid, lustreless black hair fell down behind his ears on to his shoulders, in that musicianlike way that is so offensive to the normal Englishman.

• languidly
• languidness

• languish
• languor
• languorous

A variant of languet.^[2]

languid (plural languids)

1. Synonym of languet (“a flat plate in (or opposite and below the mouth of) the pipe of an organ”)

   Synonym: (rare) language

   • 1913, William Horatio Clarke, “Double Languids”, in Standard Organ Building, Boston, Mass.: Richard G. Badger, the Gorham Press, →OCLC, page 150:

     A new method of voicing flue pipes has recently been introduced by which a greater volume of tone is obtained without increasing the wind pressure. This is accomplished by making use of TWO languids in metal pipes with a space between the upper and lower languids. As may be required, a small hole is bored in either of the languids, or in the back of the pipe in the space between the two languids.

• fatigue on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “languid”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• Gauldin, dualing, lauding