languish

verb (used without object)

1. to be or become weak or feeble; droop; fade.
2. to lose vigor and vitality.
3. to undergo neglect or experience prolonged inactivity; suffer hardship and distress: to languish in prison for ten years.
4. to be subjected to delay or disregard; be ignored: a petition that languished on the warden’s desk for a year.
5. to pine with desire or longing.
6. to assume an expression of tender, sentimental melancholy.

noun

7. the act or state of languishing.
8. a tender, melancholy look or expression.

verb (intr)

1. to lose or diminish in strength or energy
2. (often foll by for) to be listless with desire; pine
3. to suffer deprivation, hardship, or neglectto languish in prison
4. to put on a tender, nostalgic, or melancholic expression

v.early 14c., “fail in strength, exhibit signs of approaching death,” from languiss-, present participle stem of Old French languir “be listless, pine, grieve, fall ill,” from Vulgar Latin *languire, from Latin languere “be weak or faint” (see lax). Weaker sense “be lovesick, grieve, lament, grow faint,” is from mid-14c. Related: Languished; languishing.