stagnate

/ˌstægˈneɪt/

/ˈstægneɪt/

Other forms: stagnating; stagnated; stagnates

If after high school you choose to live in your parents' house, keep the same job, and spend time with the same friends, your mother might worry that you've decided to stagnate, or stop moving forward.

When water stagnates, it stops moving and then sometimes begins to smell bad and attract mosquitoes. Think of a marshy pond or an old puddle. Similarly in the figurative sense, when the economy or society stagnates, it doesn't just sit still, it loses momentum. The word carries with it a negative connotation as something that stagnates really should be moving.

Definitions of stagnate

1. verb

   stand still
   “Industry will stagnate if we do not stimulate our economy”

   type of:

   be

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

   cause to stagnate
   “There are marshes that stagnate the waters”

   type of:

   change

   undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature
3. verb

   cease to flow; stand without moving
   “Stagnating waters”

   “blood stagnates in the capillaries”

   type of:

   be

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

   be idle; exist in a changeless situation
   “The old man sat and stagnated on his porch”

   synonyms: idle, laze, slug

   types:

   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

   bum, bum about, bum around, frig around, loaf, loll, loll around, lounge about, lounge around, waste one's time

   be lazy or idle

   lie about, lie around

   hang around idly