▪ I. languid, n.
(ˈlæŋgwɪd)
Also (in sense 2) language.
[Corruption of languet.]
† 1. = languet 3. Obs.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 14/2 Close Shooes, are such as have no open in the sides of the Latchets or Languides. |
2. = languet 5. (Also attrib.)
| 1852 Seidel Organ 78 The language, just above the foot to which it is soldered on. 1855 Hopkins Organ 360 The language or languid is the flat plate of metal that lies horizontally over the top of the foot, just inside the mouth. Ibid. 375 Languid Wood Pipes are sometimes made. 1876 J. Hiles Catech. Organ iv. (1878) 24 A flat piece of metal called the language, or languid. |
▪ II. languid, a.
(ˈlæŋgwɪd)
[a. F. languide or ad. L. languid-us, f. languēre to languish.]
1. Of persons or animals, the body, etc.: Faint, weak; inert from fatigue or weakness; wanting in vigour or vitality.
| 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 50 b/2 The natural caliditye being in these partes feeble and languide. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 338 The first births in the beginning of the seauenth moneth are..verie languid and weake. 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 33 A languid Pulse depends on languid Spirits. 1744 Armstrong Preserv. Health iii. 381 Happy he whose toil Has o'er his languid powerless limbs diffus'd A pleasing lassitude. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 168 (Serpents) Their lungs..are long and large, and doubtless are necessary to promote their languid circulation. 1816 J. Wilson City Plague ii. ii, How pale you look! Wearied, and pale, and languid. 1857 Mrs. Gatty Parables fr. Nat. Ser. ii. (1868) 144 Languid, indeed, was the voice, and languid were the movements of the grub. 1876 J. Saunders Lion in Path xi, This recent illness had still left him languid. |
| transf. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 218 Unknown to them when sensual pleasures cloy, To fill the languid pause with finer joy. 1832 Tennyson Lotos-eaters 5 All round the coast the languid air did swoon. 1871 C. M. Yonge Cameos II. xxxii. 333 No doubt he had longed for her in the weary languid hours before Meaux. |
b. Of persons and their deportment: Slow in movement; showing an indisposition (natural or affected) to physical exertion.
| 1728 Young Love Fame v, The languid lady next appears in state, Who was not born to carry her own weight. 1863 F. A. Kemble Resid. in Georgia 67 They are languid in their deportment. |
2. Of persons, their character, feelings, actions, etc.: Not easily roused to emotion, exhibiting only faint interest or concern; spiritless, apathetic. Of interest, impressions: Faint, weak.
| 1713 Addison Cato i. v, I'll hasten to my troops, And fire their languid souls with Cato's virtue. 1713 Steele Guardian No. 18 ¶1 [Death] which, by reason of its seeming distance makes but languid impressions upon the mind. 1742 Pope Dunc. iv. 46 With mincing step, small voice, and languid eye. 1751 Butler Charge Clergy Durham Wks. 1874 II. 331 Without somewhat of this nature, piety will grow languid even among the better sort of men. 1774 Burke Amer. Tax. Wks. 1842 I. 169, I never heard a more languid debate in this house. 1791 Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest i, Madame gazed with concern upon her languid countenance. 1849 Lytton Caxtons 12 He was too lazy or too languid where only his own interests were at stake. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 177 In him dislike was a languid feeling. Ibid. v. 570 A war of which the theatre was so distant..excited only a languid interest in London. Ibid. xvii. IV. 90 An appeal which might have moved the most languid and effeminate natures to heroic exertion. 1870 Howson Metaph. St. Paul iv. 153 What a contrast this is to our dull and languid Christianity! |
b. Of ideas, style, language: Wanting in force, vividness, or interest. Said also of a writer.
| a 1677 Barrow Serm. Wks. 1686 III. xxxvi. 404 Methinks the highest expressions that language..can afford, are very languid and faint in comparison of what they strain to represent, when [etc.]. a 1704 T. Brown Sat. Antients Wks. 1730 I. 24 To hear Homer call'd dull and heavy..and Horace an Author unpolished languid and without force. 1864 Burton Scot Abr. II. ii. 179 They sent me two inscriptions but they were long and languid. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xx. vi. (1872) IX. 108 He had written certain thin Books, all of a thin languid nature. 1865 Seeley Ecce Homo iii. (ed. 8) 25 The languid dreams of commentators. |
3. Of business, trade, or other activity viewed externally to persons: Sluggish, dull, not brisk or lively.
| 1832 Dibdin (title) Bibliophobia. Remarks on the present languid and depressed state of Literature and the Book Trade. 1833 H. Martineau Vanderput & S. iv. 64 The business has been very languid. 1866 Crump Banking viii. 169 On account of the circulation of their currencies being more languid. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xviii. 406 The market for exports was exceedingly languid. 1887 Daily News 20 June 2/5 A languid tone has been observed in many quarters. |
4. Of inanimate things, physical motion, etc.: Weak, wanting in force; slow of movement.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xxv. 176 A languid and dumbe allision upon the parts. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. 190 No motion so swift or languid, but a greater velocity or slowness may still be conceived. 1715–20 Pope Iliad ix. 279 When the languid flames at length subside. 1748 Shenstone Odes, Verses to W. Lyttleton iv, When languid suns are taking leave Of every drooping tree. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 199 That the same power..should even in it's more languid state be capable of raising to the surface considerable quantities of water from the interior. 1834 Macaulay Pitt Ess. (1854) 302 Two rivers met, the one gentle, languid, and though languid, yet of no depth. |
b. Of colour: Faint, not vivid.
| 1747 Gould Eng. Ants 3 The first are of a languid Red; the second extremely black and shining. 1764 Reid Inquiry vi. §22 The colours of objects, according as they are more distant, become more faint and languid. |