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LISTLESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lacking zest or vivacity
Example:
he was listless and bored
Classified under:
Similar:
lethargic; unenergetic (deficient in alertness or activity)
Derivation:
listlessness (inactivity resulting from lethargy and lack of vigor or energy)
listlessness (a feeling of lack of interest or energy)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Marked by low spirits; showing no enthusiasm
Example:
reacted to the crisis with listless resignation
Synonyms:
dispirited; listless
Classified under:
Similar:
spiritless (lacking ardor or vigor or energy)
Derivation:
listlessness (a feeling of lack of interest or energy)
Context examples:
Lord Ingram, like his sisters, is very tall; like them, also, he is handsome; but he shares Mary's apathetic and listless look: he seems to have more length of limb than vivacity of blood or vigour of brain.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little boat, watching the clouds and listening to the rippling of the waves, silent and listless.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
All the demoniacal force of the man masked behind that listless manner burst out in a paroxysm of energy.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Up went a handful of soft snow, and the head turned at once, showing a face which lost its listless look in a minute, as the big eyes brightened and the mouth began to smile.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend’s noble correspondent could be.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You could not walk the streets without catching sight of the gipsy-faced, keen-eyed men whose plain clothes told of their thin purses as plainly as their listless air showed their weariness of a life of forced and unaccustomed inaction.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But when it came to almagest and astrolabe, the counting of figures and reckoning of epicycles, away would go her thoughts to horse and hound, and a vacant eye and listless face would warn the teacher that he had lost his hold upon his scholar.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But, you see, Jo wasn't a heroine, she was only a struggling human girl like hundreds of others, and she just acted out her nature, being sad, cross, listless, or energetic, as the mood suggested.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He looked and then he smiled, as he could not well help doing, for it was capitally done, the long, lazy figure on the grass, with listless face, half-shut eyes, and one hand holding a cigar, from which came the little wreath of smoke that encircled the dreamer's head.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
