torpor

Alas, even the raised stakes cannot shake them from the emotional and intellectual torpor that bedevils Chekhov’s celebrated characters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

A sluggish U.S. labor market appears to be coming out of its torpor.

From MarketWatch ● May 7, 2026

The Pacers never looked like shaking off their early season torpor on Monday despite facing a Detroit team missing both Cade Cunningham and Tobias Harris.

From Barron's ● Nov. 18, 2025

While their immune systems keep the fungus at bay when the bat is active, the fungus gains the upper hand once the bats enter their state of torpor.

From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2024

The plan had been to feed the beasts and chain them in their torpor, just as the queen had done.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

During one of these afternoon torpors, I came upon a word: acedia.

From The Guardian ● May 29, 2019

He was in one of his reptilian torpors again.

From "Abel's Island" by William Steig

But the fumes and torpors of grief and pain were this morning dispersed.

From Tante by Anne Douglas Sedgwick

When he sank into one of his torpors, the quiet woman holding his pulse, he felt he was getting even with the wife and daughter who had made him so unhappy in past days.

From Command by William McFee

In literature no less than in politics the discovery meant the final breaking up of the old world, and the slow birth of a new one through alternate torpors and agonies.

From Latin Literature by J. W. (John William) Mackail