Repine vs Languish - What's the difference?
repine | languish |
*, II.3.6:
* Alexander Pope
* 1958 , John W. Peterson, Night of Miracles :
* 1988 , (Anthony Burgess), Any Old Iron :
To fail; to wane.
* Spenser
To lose strength and become weak; to be in a state of weakness or sickness.
* Bible, 2 Esdras viii. 31
To pine away in longing for something; to have low spirits, especially from lovesickness.
To live in miserable or disheartening conditions.
To be neglected; to make little progress, be unsuccessful.
(obsolete) To make weak; to weaken, devastate.
* 1815 , Jane Austen, Emma
As verbs the difference between repine and languish
is that repine is while languish is to lose strength and become weak; to be in a state of weakness or sickness.repine
English
Alternative forms
* (l)Verb
(en-verb)- But many times we complain, repine , and mutter without a cause, we give way to passions we may resist and will not.
- What if the head, the eye, or ear repined / To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
- no more need men on earth repine
- Beatrix invited me no more to tea but I did not greatly repine .
- Repining courage yields no foot to foe.
References
* “†re?pine, n.'']” listed in the '' [2nd ed., 1989 * “
repine, v.'']” listed in the ''Oxford English Dictionary [2nd ed., 1989 * “
repine, n.'']” listed in the ''Oxford English Dictionary [3rd ed., December 2009 * “
repine, v.'']” listed in the ''Oxford English Dictionary [3rd ed., December 2009
languish
English
Verb
(es)- We do languish of such diseases.
- He languished without his girlfriend
- He languished in prison for years
- The case languished for years before coming to trial.
- 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)