LINGER

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does linger mean? 

• LINGER (verb)
  The verb LINGER has 5 senses:

1. remain present although waning or gradually dying

2. be about

3. leave slowly and hesitantly

4. take one's time; proceed slowly

5. move to and fro

  Familiarity information: LINGER used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LINGER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they linger    ... he / she / it lingers   
Past simple: lingered   
Past participle: lingered   
-ing form: lingering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remain present although waning or gradually dying

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

Her perfume lingered on

Hypernyms (to "linger" is one way to...):

persist; remain; stay (stay behind)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be about

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

footle; hang around; lallygag; linger; loaf; loiter; lollygag; lounge; lurk; mess about; mill about; mill around; tarry

Context example:

Who is this man that is hanging around the department?

Hypernyms (to "linger" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "linger"):

lurch; prowl (loiter about, with no apparent aim)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

lingerer (someone who lingers aimlessly in or about a place)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Leave slowly and hesitantly

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

linger; tarry

Hypernyms (to "linger" is one way to...):

go away; go forth; leave (go away from a place)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Take one's time; proceed slowly

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

dawdle; linger

Hypernyms (to "linger" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Antonym:

rush (move hurridly)

Also:

linger over (delay)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Move to and fro

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

hover; linger

Context example:

The shy student lingered in the corner

Hypernyms (to "linger" is one way to...):

hesitate; waffle; waver (pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

Whether I had come there with any lingering fancy that I was still to love little Em'ly, I don't know.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Madman that I was to linger so long before I fled!

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All this was torture to me—refined, lingering torture.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"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.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Bound down a prisoner, denied even movement by the plaster casts and bandages, White Fang lingered out the weeks.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

His driver lingered a moment to get a light for his pipe from the man behind.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Mysteries linger about why particles get such a huge energy boost around black holes, forming dramatic jets that surge away from the poles of black holes at nearly the speed of light.

(Black Hole Image Makes History, NASA)

A lingering question surrounds the original source of the water that carried sediment into the crater.

(NASA's Curiosity Rover Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars, NASA)

Oh! Not the ten-thousandth portion of the anguish that was mine during the lingering detail of its execution.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

That villainous stuff seems still to linger round my throat.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)