to linger on
8
4.5
- phrasal verb
:
permanecer en
- He tended to linger on details during meetings, which sometimes delayed our decisions.
Look what's needed just to linger on the learning process.
- Look what's needed just to linger on the learning process.
- I mean, that's fascinating that, let me linger on this for a second.
- How does it impress itself upon us as we linger on it?
- If you emphasize it in the frame and just linger on it for a second, I'll start thinking, well, what does that mean?
- The trauma definitely did create some confusion and some insecurities in my life that I feel like still linger on like today.
- And one of the crazy things about this phenomenon is like we were talking about earlier, it does it, it lingers on the edge of human perception.
- So with that said, you've got to understand that as time goes on and letting things linger on, things like that can creep in.
- And so when we can accept that it can help us to not dwell and let this linger on.
Examples
-
If you emphasize it in the frame and just linger on it for a second, I'll start thinking, well, what does that mean?
-
The trauma definitely did create some confusion and some insecurities in my life that I feel like still linger on like today.
-
Can we just linger on that word strength?
-
No matter what was happening, you could linger on a channel no longer than a sentence.
Fiction book (2001) -
Look what's needed just to linger on the learning process.
-
I will not allow my mind to linger on that which is unimportant.
-
Don't linger on the TV stuff.
-
I didn't linger on it long, I assure you.
-
People really linger on what's being said more so sometimes than what's being shown unless they contradict.
-
Yet, some forms of polygenetic thought lingered on into the twentieth century.
Academic text (1996)
Synonyms
207
3.7
To stay in a place longer than expected because you do not want to leave
111
3.4
To remain in a place or job after others leave
68
4.7
To think about something for a long time, usually with worry or sadness
53
5.2
To think or talk a lot about something upsetting
42
3.9
To continue longer than needed and become boring
15
6.2
Talk for a long time in an unclear way about small unimportant things
4
4.6
To spend extra time on something because you enjoy it or do not want to stop
3
6.7
Think about something in a worried way for a long time
2
5.4
To keep thinking about a small detail and not move forward
Antonyms
How Long
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to spend more time discussing, thinking about, or remaining on a subject' is directly derivable from 'linger' (to stay longer) combined with the particle 'on' (indicating continued duration or focus); together they convey continuing to remain or dwell on something. This verb+particle composition follows a common, predictable English pattern (and equivalents exist in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The phrasal verb linger on comes from the simple image of someone who lingers, or stays, on one place or idea, like a person who keeps returning to the same point in a conversation. So, it now means 'to spend more time than necessary discussing, thinking about, or staying on a subject'.