Verb

(es)

To lose strength and become weak; to be in a state of weakness or sickness.

* Bible, 2 Esdras viii. 31

We do languish of such diseases.

To pine away in longing for something; to have low spirits, especially from lovesickness.

He languished without his girlfriend

To live in miserable or disheartening conditions.

He languished in prison for years

To be neglected; to make little progress, be unsuccessful.

The case languished for years before coming to trial.

(obsolete) To make weak; to weaken, devastate.

* 1815 , Jane Austen, Emma

He is an excellent young man, and will suit Harriet exactly: it will be an "exactly so," as he says himself; but he does sigh and languish , and study for compliments rather more than I could endure as a principal.

(Tennyson)

Verb

(head)

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Joseph Stiglitz)

, volume=188, issue=26, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Globalisation is about taxes too , passage=It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. […] It is the starving of the public sector which has been pivotal in America no longer being the land of opportunity – with a child's life prospects more dependent on the income and education of its parents than in other advanced countries.}}