STAGNATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does stagnate mean? 

• STAGNATE (verb)
  The verb STAGNATE has 4 senses:

1. stand still

2. cause to stagnate

3. cease to flow; stand without moving

4. be idle; exist in a changeless situation

  Familiarity information: STAGNATE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STAGNATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they stagnate    ... he / she / it stagnates   
Past simple: stagnated   
Past participle: stagnated   
-ing form: stagnating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stand still

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

Industry will stagnate if we do not stimulate our economy

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

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

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

stagnant (not growing or changing; without force or vitality)

stagnation (a state of inactivity (in business or art etc))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to stagnate

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

There are marshes that stagnate the waters

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

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Verb group:

stagnate (cease to flow; stand without moving)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

stagnancy (inactivity of liquids; being stagnant; standing still; without current or circulation)

stagnant (not circulating or flowing)

stagnation (a state of inactivity (in business or art etc))

stagnation (inactivity of liquids; being stagnant; standing still; without current or circulation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cease to flow; stand without moving

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

blood stagnates in the capillaries

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

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

Verb group:

stagnate (cause to stagnate)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

stagnancy (inactivity of liquids; being stagnant; standing still; without current or circulation)

stagnant (not circulating or flowing)

stagnation (inactivity of liquids; being stagnant; standing still; without current or circulation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Be idle; exist in a changeless situation

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

idle; laze; slug; stagnate

Context example:

He slugged in bed all morning

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

moon; moon around; moon on (be idle in a listless or dreamy way)

ride the bench; warm the bench (be out of the game)

daydream; moon (have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake)

arse about; arse around; bum; bum about; bum around; frig around; fuck off; loaf; loll; loll around; lounge about; lounge around; waste one's time (be lazy or idle)

lie about; lie around (hang around idly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

stagnancy; stagnation (a state of inactivity (in business or art etc))

 Context examples 

Well may he eschew the calm of domestic life; it is not his element: there his faculties stagnate—they cannot develop or appear to advantage.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Scorching temperatures, low precipitation, strong sunlight and low wind speeds allow heat and poor-quality air to stagnate in a given location for an extended period of time.

(Dangers of Concurrent Heat Waves, Air Pollution, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

We stagnate in the provinces.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This I learned from her benefactress; from the pious and charitable lady who adopted her in her orphan state, reared her as her own daughter, and whose kindness, whose generosity the unhappy girl repaid by an ingratitude so bad, so dreadful, that at last her excellent patroness was obliged to separate her from her own young ones, fearful lest her vicious example should contaminate their purity: she has sent her here to be healed, even as the Jews of old sent their diseased to the troubled pool of Bethesda; and, teachers, superintendent, I beg of you not to allow the waters to stagnate round her.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)