Word.ws English Dictionary

linger

Syllables: lin·ger/ˈliŋɡɚ/US/ˈlɪŋɡɚ/

linger verb: to stay or remain in a place or situation, especially as if unwilling to depart or not easily able to do so.

Verb

linger (third-person singular simple present lingers, present participle lingering, simple past and past participle lingered)

  1. (intransitive) To stay or remain in a place or situation, especially as if unwilling to depart or not easily able to do so.
    • Still more foole I ſhall appeare / By the time I linger herec. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • His tone lingered in the air, almost like the tone of a musical instrument.1859, Charles Dickens, chapter 15, in A Tale of Two Cities
    Synonyms:
    abide, loiter, tarry, eld, retard, stay, wait
  2. (intransitive) To remain alive or existent although still proceeding toward death or extinction; to die gradually.
    • He lingered through the day, and died that evening as the sun went down.1887, Thomas Hardy, chapter 14, in The Woodlanders
    • During his absence the queen fell ill, and after lingering for some time she died.1904, Andrew Lang, “Asmund and Signy”, in The Brown Fairy Book
  3. (idiomatic, intransitive, often) To consider or contemplate for a period of time; to engage in analytic thinking or discussion.
    • Trump doesn't linger on the poll.2011 April 14, Michael Scherer, “Trump's Political Reality Show: Will the Donald Really Run for President?”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Sep 2011

Proper noun capitalized: Linger

Linger (plural Lingers)

  1. A surname.

linger meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

linger in Tamil

காலம் தாழ்த்து, சுணங்கு, தயங்கு

linger in Urdu

ڈیرا ڈالنا, سسکنا

linger in Bengali

দেরি করা, কালক্ষেপ করা, দীর্ঘস্থায়ী হওয়া

linger in Malayalam

തങ്ങിനിൽക്കുക, നീണ്ടുനിൽക്കുക, വലിച്ചിഴയ്ക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
linger in Gujarati
અમળાવું amḷāvũ
linger in Sanskrit
सञ्ज् sañj

Examples of linger in a sentence

  • She lingered in the window until the windy sunset died in bat-colored dusk; then, going to bed, she lay sleepless all night.1891 July, Edith Wharton, “Mrs. Manstey's View”, in Scribner’s Magazine:
  • Stars fading but I linger on, dear / Still craving your kiss / I'm longin' to linger till dawn, dear / Just saying this1931, “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, Gus Kahn (lyrics), Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt (music):
  • It takes into account […] predictions of how long radioactive contaminants will linger in the soil and water near the nuclear facility.2011 April 25, Alice Park, “Upgrading the Disaster”, in Time, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2011:
  • He has brought income inequality and the lingering pain of the middle class to center stage and pushed Mrs.2016 January 30, “Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination”, in The New York Times, retrieved 30 Jan 2016:

All 40 example sentences with linger

Synonyms of linger

All synonyms of linger

Forms of linger

Verb
third-person singular presentlingers
present participlelingering
past participlelingered
pastlingered
Proper noun
pluralLingers

Past tense of linger: lingered

Origin of linger

From Middle English lengeren, frequentative of lengen (“to stay, dwell, tarry”), from Old English lenġan (“to lengthen, delay, extend”), from Proto-West Germanic *langijan, from Proto-Germanic *langijaną (compare West Frisian lingje (“to linger”), Dutch lengen, German längen, Icelandic lengja (“to lengthen”)), related to the root of English long. Equivalent to linge or long + -er (frequentative verb suffix).

Words formed from linger

Words that rhyme with linger

Questions about linger

What does linger mean?
Linger means to stay or remain in a place or situation, especially as if unwilling to depart or not easily able to do so.
What is linger in Tamil?
Linger in Tamil is காலம் தாழ்த்து, சுணங்கு, தயங்கு. See Linger meaning in Tamil.
How do you use linger in a sentence?
She lingered in the window until the windy sunset died in bat-colored dusk; then, going to bed, she lay sleepless all night.
What part of speech is linger?
Linger can be a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce linger?
Linger is pronounced /ˈlɪŋɡɚ/ (US).
What is the past tense of linger?
The past tense of linger is lingered.

Words near linger in the dictionary

  1. lingenberry
  2. lingence
  3. lingences
  4. Lingenfelter
  5. Lingenfelters
  6. linger
  7. linger on
  8. linger out
  9. lingered
  10. lingered on
  11. lingered out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: linger (page history and authors); Linger (page history and authors); linger (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); linger (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Linger (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); linger (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); અમળાવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); सञ्ज् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-linger.wav.

Cite this entry: “linger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/linger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.