If you linger somewhere, you stay there for a longer time than is necessary, for example because you are enjoying yourself. Customers are welcome to linger over coffee until around midnight It is a dreary little town where few would choose to linger
When something such as an idea, feeling, or illness lingers, it continues to exist for a long time, often much longer than expected. The scent of her perfume lingered on in the room He was ashamed. That feeling lingered, and he was never comfortable in church after that He would rather be killed in a race than die a lingering death in hospital
To spend or pass in a lingering manner; with out; as, to linger out one's days on a sick bed