stagnate

present singular third person stagnates · participle present stagnating · participle past stagnated · past stagnated

1. To cease motion, activity, or progress:
   1. intransitiveair; etc; air; etcTo cease to flow or run.

      If the water stagnates, algae will grow.

   2. intransitiveair; etc; air; etcTo be or become foul from standing.

      Air stagnates in a closed room.

      Synonyms: stand

   3. intransitiveTo cease to develop, advance, or change; to become idle.

      Ready-witted tenderness […] never stagnates in vain lamentations while there is any room for hope.

      1826, Walter Scott, Woodstock

      1 more example

      Listening to what others say, especially to what they teach, prevents our minds stagnating, thus promoting mental growth into old age.

      2003, Ernest Verity, Get Wisdom, →ISBN, page 434

2. transitiveusuallywater; air; water; airTo stop the flowing or running of

   These poor people cannot go to mountains in the later summer and the early autumn to escape the miasm, and no legislative body has any moral right by undertaking improvements, to stagnate the river marshes.

   1894 August 31, “Report of the Board of Visitors of the Government Hospital for the Insane”, in 1894 Annual Reports of the Department of the Interior

3. transitiveTo stop the development, advancement, or change of; to make idle.

   The myths and values of history have determined our consciousness, have destroyed our wholeness, Mind, experienced as separate from and superior to the body has all but closed our senses and ultimately stagnated the mind.

   1971, Jearld F. Moldenhauer, “Sweeping Statements”, in Body Politic, number 1, page 16

1. Stagnant.