lingers

verb

present tense third-person singular of linger
as in drags
to move or act slowly since they were charging by the hour, the house painters lingered in finishing up their work

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of lingers This separating of spheres feels particularly crucial given the embarrassment surrounding NFTs that still lingers among many art professionals. — Shanti Escalante-De Mattei, ARTnews.com, 17 Aug. 2026 The next chance of showers and storms arrives Thursday and lingers through the end of the workweek as much muggier-feeling weather blows back into Maryland. — Cutter Martin, CBS News, 16 Aug. 2026 Maria Black, only the seventh CEO in ADP’s 77-year history, often lingers before her predecessors’ portraits on the walk to her office. — Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 14 Aug. 2026 There’s a certain kind of nostalgia that lives in R&B—the kind that lingers after the song ends, like the last note of a slow jam playing long after midnight. — Desjah Altvater, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026 Teal was popular at one point and still lingers in some areas, says Cailliau. — Angelika Pokovba, Martha Stewart, 10 Aug. 2026 What reads at a casual distance as serene maternal tenderness shifts, on closer inspection, into something more ambivalent—a shade of melancholy that surfaces only when the eye lingers on Mary’s face. — Carmen Rosenberg-Miller, Artforum, 6 Aug. 2026 Smoke lingers over the charred ground as flames burn through the brush while Spokane Valley Fire Department crews respond to the Autumn Lane Fire on Monday. — Amanda Jackson, CNN Money, 3 Aug. 2026 High temps have peaked, but heat still lingers The heat wave this weekend was due to an intense heat dome — a mass of high pressure all the way through the higher altitudes of the atmosphere — peaking over Southern California. — Sean MacAday, Sacbee.com, 3 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lingers
  1. drags
  2. delays
  3. crawls
  4. pokes
Verb
  • Some of those embassy staff may start returning to their posts soon, however the State Department is still limiting the number of personnel in the Middle East as the war in Iran drags on.
    — Greg Dixon, NPR, 21 Aug. 2026
  • But after years of unprecedented contributions to astronomy, the forces governing the cosmos are finally taking their toll as Earth’s gravitational pull slowly drags the telescope closer towards a point of no return.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of drags
Verb
  • Nearly all report that the process contributes to burnout and delays care.
    — Richard Menger MD MPA, Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2026
  • Cellphone use before bed delays the natural drop in cortisol that teenagers need to fall asleep, according to Alice Hoagland, PhD, director of the Insomnia Clinic at the Rochester Regional Sleep Disorder Center.
    — Samantha Agate, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Aug. 2026
Definition of delays
Verb
  • Hairy-nosed wombat births are hard to spot, as after about a 30-day pregnancy, the joey crawls into its mother’s pouch.
    — Devoun Cetoute, Miami Herald, 16 Aug. 2026
  • Researchers have developed a new control framework that enables humanoid robots to perform agile movements, including army crawls, breakdancing and backflips.
    — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of crawls
Verb
  • Even in the bathrooms, the toilet and bidet are concealed inside a kind of Travertine bench and the showerhead pokes out from a monolithic stone slab.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Aug. 2026
  • This is strong language, which pokes at our tribal memory of gasoline shortages from the 1970’s.
    — George Calhoun, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026
Definition of pokes

Browse Nearby Words

lingeringly
lingers
lingo
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Lingers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lingers. Accessed 26 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of devolve

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

How to Pronounce the Trickiest Menu Items

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Aug. 21

16 Glee-ridden Words from Schitt's Creek
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
alt-684346df967d5
Add A Letter Quiz Pick the letter that goes in the same spot in fou...
See All