Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a cheerless manner; dolefully.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a cheerless manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in an unhappy manner

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cheerless +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • "In this world men struggle and suffer vainly, finding pleasure only in the bright madness of battle; dying, their souls enter a gray misty realm of clouds and icy winds, to wander cheerlessly throughout eternity."

    Conan Producers Reportedly Have Three Actors in Mind; Only One is From Twilight | /Film 2010

  • Hemingway was referring primarily to fiction, but the advice nevertheless points to one primary deficiency among the newspapers — namely, an ability to give the reader a sense that he is a colleague, not some peon to be dictated to, and that literature is something to be experienced rather than cheerlessly discussed over tea and scones.

    Understanding the General Audience : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits 2009

  • In Mariam's lap, she sucked her thumb cheerlessly and watched Rasheed in a sullen, pensive way.

    A Thousand Splendid Suns Hosseini, Khaled 2007

  • And she's come to the right place, since Pauline, who's about to marry a petulant, corpulent child (played cheerlessly by Jack Black), can give as bad as she gets when it comes to sibling rivalry.

    Wide-Eyed Glee, 2007

  • You too have stirred memories that I would rather still be laid buried… I cheerlessly remember looking at the illustration of a sailing ship printed on the reservation card for a romantic dinner for two at the Ship Hotel, Brighton… it lay at my feet, while the woman that I had reduced to tears sat dolorous, with her head in her hands on the stairs… oddly many such situations have occurred around staircases.

    Ich bin ein Blogger Ms Robinson 2007

  • He gave the order to the semaphore team, who had reluctantly given up their flags and were cheerlessly using an electromagnetic signaling technique called "radio telegraph" that was based on Mahallan's radar.

    Sun of Suns 2006

  • He, I know — for the question had been discussed among us long before the Time Machine was made — thought but cheerlessly of the Advancement of Mankind, and saw in the growing pile of civilization only a foolish heaping that must inevitably fall back upon and destroy its makers in the end.

    The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells Herbert George 2006

  • So I have had a fairly zombie-free day, up until now, when I am cheerlessly reading about the various types of cancer that bottlenose dolphins can get.

    Yee-ikes. mariness 2004

  • On the lines which he had fancied the moorings of an ark a few lanterns swung in the night breeze, flickering cheerlessly.

    A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 2003

  • All lived cheerlessly enough in the village, mixing little together, and if they did meet occasionally, it was only at such times as the bell of the mission called them tot he dilapidated cottage which served them for a church.

    Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon 2003

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