soddenness

Through the soddenness of my degradation the lure of her struck like a knife piercing my heart and strangely revived the memories of the days when I was a man like other men -- not yet a sullen, cringing slave of dreams.

The Moon of Skulls Howard, Robert E. 2005

I was soaked to soddenness, and no longer cared whether my mantle covered my fuligin torturer's cloak.

The Shadow of the Torturer Wolfe, Gene 1980

It also brought about a verbal soddenness by which measure the beat generation was positively scholastic, and it brought the abuse of some very destructive drugs.

Buried Alive, The Biography of Janis Joplin Friedman, Myra 1973

Also his soddenness shall open a short way to his slaughter; for when the king shall be intent upon the dressing of his hair, and his hand is upon his beard and his mind upon stories; when he has parted his knotted locks, either with hairpin or disentangling comb, then let him feel the touch of the steel in his flesh.

The Danish History, Books I-IX Grammaticus Saxo

Civically, two cross currents cut through the city's life; one of, a high visioned enlightenment which astounds the visiting stranger by its force, its white-fire enthusiasm; the other a black sordidness and soddenness which displays but one redeeming quality -- the characteristic San Franciscan candor.

The Native Son Inez Haynes Gillmore 1921

He reeled, flung up his arms and pitched with drunken soddenness full length upon the gravel, picking himself up clumsily with a sound of incoherent, weak lament.

The Squirrel-Cage Dorothy Canfield Fisher 1918

All the soddenness of the old days had come back to him, ghosts which would not be driven away; memories of a time when he was the grubbing, though willing slave of a victim of fear, -- of a man whose life had been wrecked through terror of the day when intruders would break their way through the debris, and when the discovery would be made.

The Cross-Cut Courtney Ryley Cooper 1913

Dinner came and went, and the gray soddenness of the skies deepened into the blackness of coming night.

The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson 1905

Philosophically, even they may have found that the plan is good, but that did not prevent them from giving their lives to lift the soddenness and accelerate the Inertia of the crowds.

Child and Country A Book of the Younger Generation Will Levington Comfort 1905

At last dinner came and went, and the gray soddenness of the skies deepened into the blackness of coming night.

Violets and Other Tales Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson 1905