/ ˈlæŋgwɪʃ; NAmE / verb [ v ] ( formal )
1.
languish (in sth) to be forced to stay somewhere or suffer sth unpleasant for a long time :
She continues to languish in a foreign prison.
2.
to become weaker or fail to make progress :
Share prices languished at 102p.
••
WORD 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.