Linger
['lɪŋgə] or ['lɪŋɡɚ]
Definition
(verb.) take one's time; proceed slowly.
(verb.) remain present although waning or gradually dying; 'Her perfume lingered on'.
Edited by Jonathan--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) To delay; to loiter; to remain or wait long; to be slow or reluctant in parting or moving; to be slow in deciding; to be in suspense; to hesitate.
(v. t.) To protract; to draw out.
(v. t.) To spend or pass in a lingering manner; -- with out; as, to linger out one's days on a sick bed.
Edited by Barbie
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Loiter, delay, tarry, lag, saunter, be slow, wait long, remain long.
Typed by Jed
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Tarry, loiter, saunter, lag, hesitate, wait
ANT:Haste, speed, press, push
Editor: Margaret
Definition
v.i. to remain long in any state: to loiter.—v.t. (Shak.) to prolong protract: (with out) to pass in a tedious manner.—n. Ling′erer.—adj. Ling′ering protracted.—n. a remaining long.—advs. Ling′eringly; Ling′erly (rare).
Editor: Wallace
Examples
- This was broken by Willoughby, who said with a faint smile, It is folly to linger in this manner. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- So long did he linger, that the very urn died; it ceased to hiss. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- As they were all going out again, he favoured her with one slight roll of his movable eye, desiring her to linger behind. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- A man in the full swing of his activities in a gay city could not afford to linger long on Egdon Heath. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- But I was a human being, and had a human being's wants: I must not linger where there was nothing to supply them. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- They will not linger long. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- She watched his eyes linger a moment on Halliday, on Halliday's party. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- The footman still lingered. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Don't say my John, it isn't proper or true, but Meg's voice lingered over the words as if they sounded pleasant to her. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- She did not mind it at the minute, for she lingered to answer Hannah's eager inquiry. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- Her voice lingered over it. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- Whereas in Gerald's soul there still lingered some attachment to the rest, to the whole. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- I yet lingered half-an-hour longer, hoping to see some sign of amity: but she gave none. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- If she lingered much later dusk would draw on, and Fanny would be put to the trouble of coming to fetch her. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The view lingers with regard to the ?sthetic imagination. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Jo, whispers the law-stationer softly as the boy lingers on the step. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Caroline, it seems, cannot, for she lingers. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Where what is left among us of deportment, he added, still lingers. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- There were painted white chairs, with gilding and wreaths on them, and some lingering red silk damask with slits in it. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- I am sorry, because I could have wished to keep up a little lingering fragment of respect for him. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- He has seen my solitary, lingering death. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Glad to see you here again, sir, said Pratt, lingering to adjust a blind. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Old Sedley's lingering illness and death supervened, after which a meeting was for some time impossible. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- He watched the lingering way she took her feet from the ground. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- This done, I rested, leaning against the tree; lingering, like any other mourner, beside a newly-sodded grave. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
Checked by Alma