languid
/ˈlaŋɡwɪd
/adjective
1(Of a person, manner, or gesture) having or showing a disinclination for physical exertion or effort: his languid demeanour irritated her...
- ‘Good man,’ commented Robert, still training the barrel on the man with a languid manner.
- But listen hard and you'll hear an attention to detail belied by the languid grace of Le Fumeur de Ciel.
- Arens was in his early forties, sandy haired and had an almost languid grace.
Synonyms
relaxed, unhurried, languorous, unenergetic, lacking in energy, slow, slow-moving;
listless, lethargic, phlegmatic, torpid, sluggish, lazy, idle, slothful, inactive, indolent, lackadaisical, apathetic, indifferent, uninterested, impassive
informal laid back
rare otiose, pococurante, Laodicean
1.1(Of a period of time) relaxed and peaceful: the terrace was perfect for languid days in the Italian sun...
- Summer's here… and it's time for those long, lazy, languid days, filled with nothing more demanding than cool dips in the pool, cooler drinks and perhaps some daydreaming.
- In the hotel's 11-acre palm-fringed ground mynah birds chatter, chipmunks dart about and the rhythmic crashing of the ocean waves harmonises the languid days.
- One day Korea may well reunify, and the journey from Seoul to Pyongyang will be a languid day trip taken by families carrying picnic baskets filled with kimchi.
Synonyms
leisurely, peaceful, languorous, relaxed, restful, lazy
2Weak or faint from illness or fatigue: she was pale, languid, and weak, as if she had delivered a child...
- Tiny children sit passively by their parents, too weak and languid to play or run around, as cars flash past them.
- It works on the principle that there are basically four different physical states of being: fatigued, tense, languid, and dynamic.
- She finally stood up, straightening her dress, as her boyfriend propped his weary, languid body up on his elbows.
Synonyms
sickly, weak, faint, feeble, frail, delicate, debilitated, flagging, drooping;
tired, weary, fatigued, enervated
Derivatives
languidly
/ adverb ...- He swayed through gaps languidly, gliding into space.
- The days are spent writing music, swimming and reading while Dominic works in his studio, the evenings spent languidly in his arms in the warm evening air.
- He is still a charming talker who looks you straight in the eye as he languidly spins out his stories about growing up in Mexico, which he considers his spiritual home.
languidness
- We meet in Soho, in a tall, skinny office just large enough to accommodate his 6ft 2ins of long-limbed languidness.
- I think that, growing up in a culture where every second of screen-time has to be justified or is cut, something about that languidness unsettles me.
- The detective's languidness and characteristic dress, the male formal attire dissembled slightly for the rain-slicked street, has produced its own markers of the urbane, even if drawn from Casablanca rather than Los Angeles.
Origin
Late 16th century (in sense 2): from French languide or Latin languidus, from languere (see languish).