Synonyms of lingering

lingering 1 of 2

adjective

as in residual

still existing or happening after something is completed or removed

The area is still feeling the lingering effects of the hurricane.

There are lingering questions about the extent of his involvement in the crime.

Related Words

• residual
• lasting
• persisting
• remaining
• enduring
• leftover
• continuing
• abiding
• staying
• holding up
• keeping up
• surviving
• biding
• perduring
• holding on
• tarrying
• running on
• prevailing
• sticking around
• carrying through

Dissimilar Words

• waning
• dying (down)
• subsiding
• ebbing
• abating
• dying
• passing
• ending
• moderating
• letting up
• finishing
• concluding
• closing
• stopping
• lapsing
• terminating
• expiring
• winding up
• ceasing
• quitting
• leaving off
• desisting
• discontinuing

lingering

2 of 2

verb

present participle of linger

as in delaying

to move or act slowly

since they were charging by the hour, the house painters lingered in finishing up their work

Synonyms & Similar Words

• delaying
• dragging
• poking
• crawling
• creeping
• strolling
• loitering
• lagging
• playing
• dawdling
• shuffling
• falling behind
• stalling
• moping
• tarrying
• dropping behind
• hanging fire
• lollygagging
• marking time
• diddling
• dallying
• dillydallying
• lounging
• staggering
• idling
• dragging one's feet
• taking one's time
• shilly-shallying
• trifling
• sauntering
• loafing
• fiddling (around)
• ambling
• puttering (around)
• hanging (around or out)
• pottering (around)
• fooling around
• lolling
• inching
• messing around
• easing
• monkeying (around)
• decelerating
• slowing (down or up)
• procrastinating
• temporizing
• plodding
• lumbering
• filibustering

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• running
• tearing
• flying
• hurrying
• rushing
• whirling
• hastening
• scurrying
• racing
• ripping
• scudding
• dashing
• speeding
• barreling
• whizzing
• zipping
• darting
• coursing
• bolting
• whisking
• rocketing
• scooting
• careering
• scrambling
• running
• breezing
• stampeding
• hurtling
• hustling
• galloping
• humping
• bowling
• trotting
• sprinting
• accelerating
• jogging
• quickening
• hotfooting (it)
• speeding (up)
• overtaking
• outrunning
• catching up
• outstripping
• outpacing
• fast-forwarding

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of lingering

Adjective

Shohei Ohtani returned to the top of the Dodgers’ lineup Monday after four days off to address lingering aches, as the club effectively pauses its pitching program for the two-way star. — Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2026

No more distractions, no more lingering questions, just a baller who loves this sport and continues to level up. — Colton Pouncy, New York Times, 31 July 2026

Although the treatment significantly reduced the cancer, follow-up exams showed lingering traces of the disease. — Khloe Quill, FOXNews.com, 25 July 2026

Communities near the Canadian fires could see lingering impacts into the weekend as long as fires continue burning and winds keep transporting smoke south. — Brandi D. Addison, USA Today, 15 July 2026

Thomas missed 57 games last season, mostly because of the same lingering left hamstring issue. — C.j. Holmes, New York Daily News, 4 Feb. 2026

On the one hand, that means that many survive the disease without serious lingering effects. — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 18 Dec. 2025

Verb

With their feelings for each other blossoming, the two go out for dinner, which is full of Rushville patrons with lingering hatred for Hal. — Jordan Moreau, Variety, 5 Oct. 2026

But even in a crowd of MAGA-hat-toting Republican voters who took a day off school and work to attend a political rally, there was some lingering skepticism about Donalds at the top of the ticket. — Claire Heddles, Miami Herald, 1 Oct. 2026

Because of the lingering effects of Jim Crow laws and racial discrimination, however, many Black women were still denied the franchise. — Christopher A. Cooper, The Conversation, 1 Oct. 2026

And the ones that remain are increasingly either too expensive for the average American or are designed to discourage lingering to create more turnover and, thus, profits. — Mary Carreon, Los Angeles Times, 30 Sep. 2026

But Sirolly said the lingering popularity of low-odds contracts is concerning. — Davis Giangiulio,ananya Chetia, CNBC, 30 Sep. 2026

That tension—respect for the work but lingering resistance to seeing it as an aspirational future for one’s own children—surfaced repeatedly during Travis’s panel. — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 30 Sep. 2026

In the weeks after, more than 85 million pounds of rotting food being kept at the cold storage facility began to rot, leaving a putrid stench lingering over the area that led to infestations of rats, flies and other rodents. — Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 29 Sep. 2026

As the duo row through pitch-black darkness toward the flame, John experiences harrowing visions of his father and of his younger self, revealed to be an effect of the fear toxin lingering in the air. — Siddhant Adlakha, Vulture, 28 Sep. 2026