Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not flowing or moving, and often foul-smelling or stale.
  • adjective Showing little or no activity or vitality; inactive or sluggish.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective That stagnates; not flowing; not running in a current or steam; motionless; hence, impure or foul from want of motion
  • adjective Not active or brisk; dull.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Lacking freshness, motion, flow, progress, or change; stale; motionless; still.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not growing or changing; without force or vitality
  • adjective not circulating or flowing

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin stāgnāns, stāgnant-, present participle of stāgnāre, to be stagnant; see stagnate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French stagnant, from Latin stagnans, present participle of stagno ("to form a pool of standing water")

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