Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use languid in a sentence

17 example sentences · adjective, noun

Languid means of a person or animal, or their body functions: flagging from weakness, or inactive or weak, especially due to illness or tiredness; faint, listless. Example: “At first she "ran a temperature" in American parlance, and I could not resist the exquisite caloricity of unexpected delights—Venus febriculosa—though it was a very languid Lolita that moaned and coughed and shivered in my embrace.”

Examples of languid by meaning

adjectiveOf a person or animal, or their body functions: flagging from weakness, or inactive or weak, especially due to illness...

  • At first she "ran a temperature" in American parlance, and I could not resist the exquisite caloricity of unexpected delights—Venus febriculosa—though it was a very languid Lolita that moaned and coughed and shivered in my embrace.1955, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 12, in Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August...

adjectiveOf a person or their movement: showing a dislike for physical effort; leisurely, unhurried.

  • Darkness fell before we reached the Belgian frontier, and on through the night our train took her languid way.1946 January and February, 'Talisman', “Bückeburg to Aberayron”, in Railway Magazine, page 41

adjectiveOf a thing: lacking energy, liveliness, or strength; inactive, slow-moving, weak.

  • languid breathing languid movements

nounSynonym of languet (“a flat plate in (or opposite and below the mouth of) the pipe of an organ”).

  • This is accomplished by making use of TWO languids in metal pipes with a space between the upper and lower languids.1913, William Horatio Clarke, “Double Languids”, in Standard Organ Building, Boston, Mass.: Richard G. Badger, the Gorham Press, →OCLC...

More sentences with languid

  • It moved seamlessly between New York freneticism and the languid sway of the son dance style .2015 July 1, John Fordham, “Loz Speyer review – genre-bending trumpeter deserves a bigger stage”, in The Guardian. From the entry freneticism
  • The following Adagietto was like a long, melting appoggiatura composed of smaller dying falls and languid resolutions.1992 March 2, New York Times. From the entry appoggiatura
  • A few languid, unshod soldiers shuffle out to greet us.2002, Dan Wylie, Dead Leaves: Two Years in the Rhodesian War, Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, →ISBN, page 60. From the entry beerbottle
  • The coscorobas have a wonderfully detached, rather languid manner of rising from the water and flying, well befitting their aristocratic air.1969, Sidney Dillon Ripley, A paddling of ducks. From the entry coscoroba
  • He is solitary, languid, his condition exhausts him.1951, Albert Camus, The Rebel, page 46. From the entry Byronic hero
  • Behind all that languid talk she was feverishly computing, "I wonder how much I can stick him for it.1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 158. From the entry stick
  • What was their languid grace but the softness of chambering?1916, James Joyce, chapter V, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC. From the entry chambering
  • There was an innate refinement, a languid queenly hauteur about Gerty which was unmistakably evidenced in her delicate hands and higharched instep.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 13]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC. From the entry queenly
  • Arrigo Sacchi's emphasis on a heavy pressing 4-4-2 left no place for a languid trequartista, and therefore players like Baggio were having to prove their worth.2019, Michael W. Cox, Zonal Marking: The Making of Modern European Football, PublicAffairs, →ISBN. From the entry trequartista
  • "Why should I fight the King of England's bravoes?" inquired Acour in a languid voice of those who stood about him, a question at which they laughed.1911, H. Rider Haggard, Red Eve. From the entry bravo
  • In May I exhibited my Paul Neyrons and Kaiserins with tremendous boastfulness, but they have long since stopped blooming, while these languid mornings find you daintily decked in pink.1910 July 2, Margaret Busbee Shipp, “A Woman’s Nondescript Garden”, in Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine, volume XIII, number 1, Thomson…. From the entry kaiserin
  • Though relative newcomers to classical music, they seemed closely attuned to the eight cellists onstage, raising their heads abruptly as the piece’s languid strains gave way to rapid-fire bow strokes.2021 April 28, Lisa Abend, “When the Cellos Play, the Cows Come Home”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 01 May 2021. From the entry cellist
  • As soon as the knobber started galloping, all the other stags, who. till now, had taken but a languid interest, if any, in his movements, jumped on to their feet.1906, Country life, volume 20, page 619. From the entry knobber

Meaning of languid

  1. adjective Of a person or animal, or their body functions: flagging from weakness, or inactive or weak, especially due to illness or tiredness; faint, listless.
  2. adjective Of a person or their movement: showing a dislike for physical effort; leisurely, unhurried.
  3. adjective Of a person or their actions, character, etc.: lacking drive, emotion, or enthusiasm; apathetic, listless, spiritless, unenthusiastic.

Full definition of languid

Questions about languid in a sentence

How do you use languid in a sentence?
Languid is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “At first she "ran a temperature" in American parlance, and I could not resist the exquisite caloricity of unexpected delights—Venus febriculosa—though it was a very languid Lolita that moaned and coughed and shivered in my embrace.”
What is a short sentence with languid?
“languid breathing languid movements”
What does languid mean?
Languid means of a person or animal, or their body functions: flagging from weakness, or inactive or weak, especially due to illness or tiredness; faint, listless.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: languid (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use languid in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/languid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.