[f. STAGNATE v.: see -ATION.]
1. The condition of being stagnant; an instance of this. a. of water or air.
1665. Needham, Med. Medicinæ, 267. The Liquor is vindicated from Putrefaction, and Stagnation, that is to say, defect of motion.
1671. Boyle, Three Tracts, III. 16. Sometimes at the Bottom of the Deep waters there seem’d to be a stagnation of the Sea for a great depth.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1686, III. 205. If the water runneth, it holdeth clear, sweet, and fresh; but stagnation turneth it into a noisome puddle.
1702. Savery, Miner’s Friend, 74. Stagnation of air is the sole cause of this Inconvenience in Mines.
1783. Justamond, trans. Raynal’s Hist. Indies, VIII. 82. A plain parcelled out and cut into channels by the stagnations of a small gulph, upon the slope of a low land.
1797. R. Heron, Scotland Descr., 5. Some of them [i.e., the lakes] are formed by the stagnation of rivers in particular parts of their course.
1829. Chapters Phys. Sci., xiv. 147. Hydrostatics … denotes that science which treats of the mechanical properties of all fluids, considered more especially in a state of stagnation.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 518. The chief injury now sustained by the soil of Scotland arises from the stagnation of rain-water upon an impervious subsoil.
transf. 1834. Marryat, P. Simple, xlvi. There appeared a total stagnation in the elements.
1913. Times, 7 Aug., 8/4. The chances of the stagnation among the teeth of cereal food are enormous…. Where coarse stagnation only was possible caries was far less frequent.
b. Phys. of blood, sap, etc. in a living body.
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 65. They are subject to a Stagnation of Blood.
1816. T. A. Knight, in Trans. Horticult. Soc., II. 200. The stagnation in the branches and stock of a portion of that sap, which [etc.].
1876. trans. Wagner’s Gen. Pathol., 193. The causes of thrombosis consist either in stagnation of the blood, or in changes in the wall of the vessel.
attrib. 1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 167. Thrombi attributed to slowing of the blood current … are called stagnation-thrombi.
2. fig. Unhealthy absence of activity, energy, etc.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 260, ¶ 1. The Decay of my Faculties is a Stagnation of my Life.
1732. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 249. There will be a kind of Stagnation of all Business.
1798. Sophia Lee, Canterb. T., Yng. Lady’s T., II. 448. Such a collection of books as secured the mind from stagnation.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 359. In an empire like Turkey … we see everywhere—neglect, stagnation, and decay.
1907. Verney Mem., I. 441. The dulness and stagnation of a French country town.
