I.v. inch. n. [langueo], to become faint, weak, languid (class.; syn.: torpesco, marcesco).
I. Lit.
A. In gen.: “corpore languescit,” Cic. Fin. 4, 24, 65: “orator metuo ne languescat senectute,” id. de Sen. 9, 28: “corpora,” Ov. Tr. 3, 3, 39; Plin. Pan. 18: “vites languescunt,” Plin. 18, 15, 37, § 138: “cum flos, succisus aratro, languescit moriens,” droops, withers, Verg. A. 9, 436: Bacchus in amphora Languescit, becomes mild or mellow, Hor. C. 3, 16, 34: “luna languescit,” becomes obscured, Tac. A. 1, 28: “color in luteum languescens,” inclining to, Plin. 27, 13, 109, § 133.—
B. In partic., to be enfeebled by disease, to be ill, to languish (poet. and post-Aug.): “nec mea languescent corpora,” Ov. Tr. 3, 3, 39: “ter omnino per quatuordecim annos languit,” Suet. Ner. 51.—
II. Trop., to grow languid, listless, or inactive, to decline, decrease: “consensus populi, si nos languescimus debilitetur necesse est,” Cic. Phil. 8, 2, 4: “Martia legio hoc nuntio languescet et mollietur,” id. ib. 12, 3, 8: “quare non est, cur eorum spes infringatur aut languescat industria,” should relax, id. Or. 2, 6: “militaria studia,” are on the decline, Plin. Pan. 18: “affectus omnes,” Quint. 11, 3, 2: “mens languescit,” id. 1, 2, 18: omnium rerum cupido languescit, cum facilis occasio est, Plin. Ep. 8, 20, 1: “paulatim atrocibus irae languescunt animis,” Sil. 13, 325: “illa rabies languit,” Luc. 7, 246.
