stagnation

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stag·nate

(stăg′nāt′)

intr.v. stag·nat·ed, stag·nat·ing, stag·nates

To be or become stagnant.

[Latin stāgnāre, stāgnāt-, from stāgnum, swamp.]

stag·na′tion n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Stagnation

in a rut Stuck in an established routine; mired in monotony; caught in a stultifying sameness. This figurative use of rut ‘deep furrow or track’ has been common since the mid-19th century.

On his return to civilized life, he will settle at once into the rut. (Sir John Skelton, Campaigner at Home, 1865)

Today the expression carries the contradictory connotations of comfort and discontent, with emphasis on the latter: movement in a fixed course is smooth and easy but deadening.

in the doldrums Inactive, stagnant, nonproductive; depressed, in low spirits, in the dumps, in a blue funk. Doldrum derives from dol, an obsolete form of dull, and is itself an obsolete slang term for a dullard. Thus, the doldrums refers to a condition of dullness, low spirits, or depression.

I am now in the doldrums; but when I get better, I will send you …. (Morning Herald, April 13, 1811)

The doldrums also often refers to the condition of a becalmed ship. By extension, not only ships, but the economy, politics, trade, etc., can be “in the doldrums.”

At the present moment the trade appears to be in the doldrums. (Sir T. Sutherland, Westminster Gazette, July 11, 1895)

According to the OED, confusion as to whether the doldrums referred to a condition or a location gave rise to its use as the name of that specific region of calm near the Equator where neutralizing trade winds often prevent ships from making progress.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	stagnation - a state of inactivity (in business or art etc); "economic growth of less than 1% per year is considered to be economic stagnation" doldrums, stagnancy artistic creation, artistic production, art - the creation of beautiful or significant things; "art does not need to be innovative to be good"; "I was never any good at art"; "he said that architecture is the art of wasting space beautifully" business enterprise, commercial enterprise, business - the activity of providing goods and services involving financial and commercial and industrial aspects; "computers are now widely used in business" inaction, inactiveness, inactivity - the state of being inactive
	2.	stagnation - inactivity of liquids; being stagnant; standing still; without current or circulation stagnancy inaction, inactiveness, inactivity - the state of being inactive

stagnation

noun

A lack of action or activity:

idleness, inaction, inactivity, inertness, inoperativeness.

Translations

رُكود، كَساد

váznutí

stagnation

Stagnation

stagnation immobilisme repos

stagnálás

stöînun; òaî aî vera staîinn/fúll

ristagno stasi

stagnasjon stillstand

repouso

стагнация

ustrnutieuviaznutie

durgunluk

停滞

stagnation

[stægˈneɪʃən] N

1. [of water] → estancamiento m

2. (fig) [of economy, industry] → estancamiento m, paralización f; [of market] → inactividad f, estancamiento m; [of society, person] → anquilosamiento m, estancamiento m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

stagnation

[stægˈneɪʃ^ən] n [economy, industry] → stagnation fstag night n → enterrement m de vie de garçonstag party n → enterrement m de vie de garçon

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

stagnation

n → Stagnieren nt; (of trade also) → Stagnation f, → Stocken nt; (of air) → Stau m; (of person) → Verdummung f; (of mind) → Verlangsamung f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

stagnation

[stægˈneɪʃ/ən] n (of water, economy) → ristagno, stagnazione f; (of mind) → intorpidimento

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

stagnant

(ˈstӕgnənt) adjective

1. (of water) standing still rather than flowing and therefore usually dirty. a stagnant pool.

2. dull or inactive. Our economy is stagnant.

stagnate (stӕgˈneit) , ((American) ˈstӕgneit) verb

1. (of water) to be or become stagnant.

2. to become dull and inactive.

stagˈnation noun

stag·na·tion

n. estancación, estancamiento, falta de circulación en los líquidos.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

References in classic literature ?

Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise; for the result is waste of time and general stagnation.

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The complexity of Petersburg, as a rule, had a stimulating effect on him, rousing him out of his Moscow stagnation. But he liked these complications, and understood them only in the circles he knew and was at home in.

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Owing to occasional retrogressions, to still more frequent moral and intellectual stagnation, and to the extraordinary fecundity of the Criminal and Vagabond Classes, there is always a vast superfluity of individuals of the half degree and single degree class, and a fair abundance of Specimens up to 10 degrees.

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It was a stagnation in which, full of pity for him, Anne of Austria would not have willingly left him; but in order to attract the attention of the sick man by some brilliant stroke, she must have either won or lost.

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Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.

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The theatre or the rooms, where he was most likely to be, were not fashionable enough for the Elliots, whose evening amusements were solely in the elegant stupidity of private parties, in which they were getting more and more engaged; and Anne, wearied of such a state of stagnation, sick of knowing nothing, and fancying herself stronger because her strength was not tried, was quite impatient for the concert evening.

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Mentally she remained in utter stagnation, a condition which the mechanical occupation rather fostered than checked.

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Had it not been for the moon, which was increasing above them, they might have sworn that they were floating in complete stagnation.

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An incredible dullness, a ditch-water stagnation was sensible to his perceptions as though life had withdrawn itself from all things and even from his own thoughts.

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But when it cuts the ragged hole, after a bound or two, there is, commonly, a stagnation of further leaping, be it Indian or be it deer!"

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Growing more accustomed to his work it tired him less, and his mind, recovering from its long stagnation, sought for fresh activity.

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"My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere.

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