1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. linger

Find the word definition

What is "linger"

Crossword clues for linger

linger
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
linger
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a lingering/nagging doubt (=one that does not go away)
▪ I still had a nagging doubt that there might be something seriously wrong.
a long/lingering kiss
▪ He gave her a a long, slow, lingering kiss.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
here
▪ No, he was not going to linger here.
▪ Why linger here in the sordid dark for nothing?
long
▪ But the aroma of the food lingered long after all the sounds of movement had ceased.
▪ Even after swallowing it, its bitter taste lingered long in my mouth.
▪ Blanche did not linger long over the local news reports.
▪ He retraced his footsteps and stayed around for a while, but it was too cold to linger long.
on
▪ Alas, the poll tax will linger on, in less expensive form, until April 1993.
▪ Director Mike Figgis' powerfully bleak film lingers on like a hangover.&038;.
▪ It lingered on well into the 1930s.
▪ The whooping cough passed, but humiliation lingered on.
▪ Civil War conditions lingered on in other ways.
▪ The assumptions underlying the deconstructionist view of reality linger on in surprisingly wide circles of influence in the 1990s.
▪ But the issue will linger on until both governments agree to resume the repatriation programme.
▪ While his wife lingered on, in agony, he had no coverage at all.
over
▪ She watched carefully as Travis lingered over his own cup.
▪ You can see at a glance the few places other readers lingered Over.
▪ Jacqui noticed that she spent ninety percent of her time lingering over the two dozen Allied officers left in the audience.
▪ There is no need to linger over this stage.
▪ Muriel said nothing while Lily lingered over breakfast and then disappeared upstairs.
▪ He lingers over that and I wait for him to ask why I was visiting a Communist state.
▪ There was only one couple lingering over coffee and cigarettes.
▪ Unlike other tourists, we must not linger over these delights.
still
▪ Most still linger in county jails, awaiting the outcome of appeals or seeking jury trials.
▪ The air of empty spaces still lingered around her.
▪ But, his hand still lingering, he was straightening up.
▪ The onion smell still lingered, sharp and pungent.
▪ Here and there a few flakes of skin still lingered like the scurf of stars.
▪ Reverberations from that situation still linger.
▪ This had provoked hostility in some quarters towards him - a hostility that lingered still in the family-orientated Marsh End.
▪ If you sit down with somebody who has been on a series for four years, that feeling still lingers.
there
▪ Several men in the after shell-room lingered there too long... and were drowned.
▪ Warm fingers touch my shoulder; they linger there.
▪ Half a dozen girls, most of them hatted and ready for the street, lingered there.
too
▪ Don't linger too long, though.
▪ Other kids complained it tasted great at first, but the aftertaste lingered too long.
▪ She doesn't linger too long, for there are preparations to be made at home.
▪ Many lingered too long with their breakfast dishes.
▪ He had learned his craft and had lingered too long.
■ NOUN
coffee
▪ There was only one couple lingering over coffee and cigarettes.
death
▪ I dread a painful, lingering death.
▪ History teaches that the lack of a railroad stop condemned many towns to a lingering death a hundred years ago.
doubt
▪ But doubts are bound to linger and further clarifications are required to dispel them.
hand
▪ But, his hand still lingering, he was straightening up.
▪ His hand, lingering behind a moment, made a hook for her to follow.
▪ Stephen felt the softness of the chair beneath him and allowed his hand to linger on the brocade.
memory
▪ For those at Little Rock's night of celebration, the memory will linger for ever.
▪ Her memory must be lingering in every lonely room and courtyard - hence his hardness now.
▪ The benefits of the scheme, like the memories, will linger on.
▪ The memory lingered on, though, in the minds of many Stamford people.
mind
▪ None the less, a few crimes linger in the public mind.
▪ This notion of how the geodynamo might work has lingered in the minds of geomagnetists.
▪ In some ways it is an unfinished, unrealised film, yet it lingers potently in the mind.
▪ Looking back on college, academic involvements, including debating, linger most in my mind.
moment
▪ His hand, lingering behind a moment, made a hook for her to follow.
question
▪ But the question lingers: Just what visions do our current and former elected officials hold for this state and its people?
▪ A key question lingering is where the investors' money went.
▪ But a question lingers none the less: When we photograph our children naked, are we crossing a line without realizing it?
▪ This question continued to linger in our midst and shroud our lives in a ravenous expanse with no discernible seams or edges.
smell
▪ The smells lingered faintly to enchant the air even at this time of year, but the mystery of childhood had vanished.
▪ The onion smell still lingered, sharp and pungent.
▪ The smell of Warsaw lingers as that of coal.
▪ A musk smell lingered on Groves' sleeve, from where the female snake had curled around his arm.
▪ He rolls off me and passes out on the pillow, the smell of his drunkenness lingering like something live.
■ VERB
let
▪ I am inclined to doubt it, but let us not linger, and consider instead the second premiss of the argument.
▪ You already blew it by letting it linger this long.
▪ Each of these station types had its own distinctive character and ambience. Let us linger a while at some of them.
▪ Violetta is hardly the type to let lingering illness disrupt her lusty courtesan life.
▪ I should not let them linger, wasting time, wasting money, until the spring brings them fresh hope.
▪ He lets the silence linger for ten endless seconds, during which his bulk seems to swell in the room.
▪ It is possible to let resentment and hurt linger on for years, when it should have been released long before.
seem
▪ These smells all seem to linger, unfolding page by page, Memories of years gone by, until the present age.
▪ Lilithian traditions seem to have lingered on in the Pyrenees until the twentieth century.
▪ The scent still seems to linger.
want
▪ Large lounge for those who want to linger.
▪ These are high-spending areas, and the management wants you to linger.
▪ I don't want to linger on in hospital with tubes and drugs and all that messy business.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A few fans lingered on after the concert was over.
▪ As she lingered over her coffee, the sky began to darken and heavy rain clouds swept in.
▪ Doubts about Manzi's honesty still linger on.
▪ Garlic has a taste which tends to linger in your mouth.
▪ I lingered on the sidewalk outside the old house, wondering who lived there now.
▪ Jack lingered for a while in the hall, hoping to get the chance to talk with her.
▪ She lingered for a moment, uncertain what to do, then turned on her heel and left abruptly.
▪ Summer weather has lingered longer than usual.
▪ The faint smell of cigar smoke lingered on in the room.
▪ Uncle Gene lingered on a year longer than doctors expected.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But the memory of that last family holiday together in Orkney lingers for ever.
▪ Derek, in a show of good manners, lingered long enough to exchange a few remarks.
▪ It usually takes several days for the pain to subside, although it can linger for weeks.
▪ Outside the church many parishioners lingered, distributing leaflets and gossiping.
▪ Spike, still feeling in disgrace, comes in with her but lingers in the doorway.
▪ The chromium, used to prevent pipe corrosion, was released from 1951 until 1966, but lingered in groundwater.
▪ The poets did not care to linger in that gloom-hidden abode.
▪ We lingered, not just because of the food but also because of the view out the picture window.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Linger

Linger \Lin"ger\ (l[i^][ng]"g[~e]r), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Lingered (l[i^][ng]"g[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Lingering.] [OE. lengen to tarry, AS. lengan to prolong, put off, fr. lang long. [root]125. See Long,

  1. ] 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.

    Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind.
    --Gray.

    Perhaps thou linger'st, in deep thoughts detained.
    --Milton.

    Syn: To loiter; lag; saunter; delay; tarry; stop; hesitate.

Linger

Linger \Lin"ger\, v. t.

  1. To protract; to draw out. [Obs.]

    She lingers my desires.
    --Shak.

  2. To spend or pass in a lingering manner; -- with out; as, to linger out one's days on a sick bed.
    --Dryden.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
linger

c.1300, lenger "reside, dwell," northern England frequentative of lengen "to tarry," from Old English lengan "prolong, lengthen," from Proto-Germanic *langjan "to make long" (cognates: Old Frisian lendza, Old High German lengan, Dutch lengen "to lengthen"), source of Old English lang (see long (adj.)). Sense of "delay going, depart slowly and unwillingly" is from 1520s. Related: Lingered; lingering.

Wiktionary
linger

vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To stay or remain in a place or situation, especially as if unwilling to depart or not easily able to do so. 2 (context intransitive English) To remain alive or existent although still proceeding toward death or extinction; to die gradually. 3 {{context|intransitive|often followed by (term on English)|lang=en}} To consider or contemplate for a period of time; to engage in analytic thinking or discussion.

WordNet
linger

  1. v. remain present although waning or gradually dying; "Her perfume lingered on"

  2. be about; "The high school students like to loiter in the Central Square"; "Who is this man that is hanging around the department?" [syn: loiter, lounge, footle, lollygag, loaf, lallygag, hang around, mess about, tarry, lurk, mill about, mill around]

  3. leave slowly and hesitantly [syn: tarry]

  4. take one's time; proceed slowly [syn: dawdle] [ant: rush]

  5. move to and fro; "The shy student lingered in the corner" [syn: hover]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Linger (song)

"Linger" is a song composed by Irish musicians Dolores O'Riordan and Noel Hogan of the rock band The Cranberries, released in 1993. The song, which has an acoustic arrangement featuring a string section, became the band's first major hit, peaking at #3 in the Republic of Ireland, #8 in the United States, and #14 in the UK. The song was voted by Triple J listeners as #3 on the Triple J Hottest 100, 1993 chart.

Linger

Linger may refer to:

  • Linger (surname)
  • Linger, Luxembourg, a town in Bascharage, Luxembourg
  • "Linger" (song), a 1993 song by the Irish rock band The Cranberries
  • "Linger", a 2001 song by Jonatha Brooke from the album Steady Pull
  • Linger (album), a 1990 album by Prudence Liew
  • 'Linger' a novel by Maggie Stiefvater
  • Linger (film), a 2008 film directed by Johnnie To
Linger (film)

Linger is a 2008 Hong Kong romantic drama film directed by Johnnie To and starring Li Bingbing and Vic Chou.

Linger (album)

依依 Linger is the sixth studio album of cantopop singer Prudence Liew, released in 1990.

Linger (surname)

Linger is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

  • Andreas Linger (born 1981), Austrian luger
  • Carl Linger (1810–1862), German Australian composer
  • Chelton Linger (born 1988), Dutch footballer
  • James Linger (born 1990), Australian baseball player
  • Ortwin Linger (1967–1989), Dutch-Surinamese footballer
  • Paul Linger (born 1974), English footballer
  • Wolfgang Linger (born 1982), Austrian luger
Linger (Guy Sebastian song)

"Linger" is a song by Australian recording artist Guy Sebastian featuring American rapper Lupe Fiasco. It was released as the fourth single from Sebastian's seventh studio album, Madness (2014). "Linger" peaked at number 17 on the ARIA Singles Chart and was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association for shipments exceeding 35,000 shipments.

Usage examples of "linger".

Widahd lingered abovestairs only long enough to to collect the necessaries, then trooped off to the semi-detached bath chamber, returning a good hour later.

Our eyes lingered as long as possible and with all eagerness upon these meadows and marshes which the poet has made immortal, and we regretted that inexorable Baddeck would not permit us to be pilgrims for a day in this Acadian land.

From The Hague, John Adams promised to be with them in a matter of days, but warned that there could be no lingering in London.

Any lingering questions about their construction could be answered then by the aliens themselves.

None of the other players at the table had succeeded in capturing the wandering spirit of good fortune, but for the cachet of lingering near a celebrity like Ianthe Apeiron they continued to make their wagers.

Of these, Ravenna had been the last to withdraw, lingering while she fashioned the Ions, one great beast for every land: the starhorse Avarclon for the white plain of Avaric, the cockatrice of Elver, the gryphon of Terrain.

But their wants soon reduced them to stock-raiding and other predatory practices, with the result that in the end the whole countryside made common cause against them, and so the last phase of the fratricidal struggle deteriorated into a man hunt away in the backblocks north of Perth and the southern districts, full of heroic incidents, but devoid of historical interest except as far as serving, by reason of its sordidness and cruelty, to extinguish thoroughly any lingering sympathy which the coastal population might still cherish for the lost cause of Western Australia.

After the war, the United States maintained a small naval task force in the area based in Bahrain in support of the lingering British military presence.

Papa Schimmelhorn cast one last lingering look at the pair of Balinese, and mutely shook Little Anton by the hand.

I make sure to fill his wineglass with an excellent Barbaresco he keeps thanking me with a nod and a relaxed smile, his eyes lingering on mine, only sometimes distracted by the lights and cameras and various assistants swirling around us.

He lingered a moment, wondering what it might be like to live on a site like this, to wake up every morning to views of Southsea se afront across the churning tide, then he let the binos drift down again until he was following a line of open gun ports.

Never before had she observed Indians lingering in the forest around her house, performing birdcalls for the fun of it.

Vanora gave Bors a heavy, lingering kiss and a penetrating look filled with erotic promise, then got up and began to meander languidly across the yard.

They strolled down to thank Brooks and Rollins who had been parking cars on the lower lawn and who lingered by the cars as if to make certain they stayed parked.

Brief brushes, lip to lip, never lingering, teasing her into wanting more.