LISTLESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does listless mean? 

• LISTLESS (adjective)
  The adjective LISTLESS has 2 senses:

1. lacking zest or vivacity

2. marked by low spirits; showing no enthusiasm

  Familiarity information: LISTLESS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LISTLESS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking zest or vivacity

Context example:

he was listless and bored

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

Synonyms:

dispirited; listless

Context example:

reacted to the crisis with listless resignation

Similar:

spiritless (lacking ardor or vigor or energy)

Derivation:

listlessness (a feeling of lack of interest or energy)

 Context examples 

He took up the paper in a listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he gave a little cry of satisfaction.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was gone before she could study it and the listless expression back again.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

My poor husband would sit pale and listless, listening to the endless raving upon politics and upon social questions which made up our visitor’s conversation.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After some days spent in listless indolence, during which I traversed many leagues, I arrived at Strasburgh, where I waited two days for Clerval.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Next day at morning lesson the teacher observed that his pupil was indeed looking pale and jaded, with listless eyes and a weary manner.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Holmes sat silently, with his head thrown back and his eyes closed, in an attitude which might seem listless to a stranger, but which I knew betokened the most intense self-absorption.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had lost his listless expression, and again I saw an alert light of interest in his keen, deep-set eyes.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was a very different world this from that which we had left in the West—a world of energy and of strength, where there was no place for the listless and the idle.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I considered how impossible it was to preserve my life in so desolate a place, and how miserable my end must be: yet found myself so listless and desponding, that I had not the heart to rise; and before I could get spirits enough to creep out of my cave, the day was far advanced.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I had been out, one day, loitering somewhere, in the listless, meditative manner that my way of life engendered, when, turning the corner of a lane near our house, I came upon Mr. Murdstone walking with a gentleman.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)