as in bleak
causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer
a dank and cheerless castle that was once the site of unspeakable horrors
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Recent Examples of cheerless
Wedged between the cheerless skyscrapers of Third Avenue and an uncharming stretch of Second, just blocks north of the bro bars of Murray Hill, is a row of nine townhouses.
—
Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 2 Aug. 2024
Election polls may seem cheerless, inscrutable, and wrapped in data and murky terminology.
—W. Joseph Campbell, Fortune, 29 Oct. 2024
Their lives had been expended in cheerless labor, there wills broken, their intelligences numbed.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 5 July 2024
Photo: Gregg Segal One day in 2003, Joseph Schulman faced a half-dozen or so military officers in a cheerless high-rise office outside the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C.
—Ariel Bleicher, IEEE Spectrum, 20 Mar. 2013
That turned an entertaining exhibition into an awkward and cheerless faux-competitive affair.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 19 July 2022
For all his gloom, Mann was not entirely cheerless.
—Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2021
Lawrence’s was among the last, with a green campus full of trees, but a gray, cheerless interior and food that, in his words, looked regurgitated.
—Sarah Enelow-Snyder, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2020
Bishop spent a cold childhood raised by cheerless Calvinist grandparents (her official guardian, Uncle Jack, was reputedly something of a bully), and quickly learned that intense emotional attachments led to distress.
—Scott Bradfield, Washington Post, 8 Nov. 2019
Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 2 Aug. 2024
Election polls may seem cheerless, inscrutable, and wrapped in data and murky terminology.
—W. Joseph Campbell, Fortune, 29 Oct. 2024
Their lives had been expended in cheerless labor, there wills broken, their intelligences numbed.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 5 July 2024
Photo: Gregg Segal One day in 2003, Joseph Schulman faced a half-dozen or so military officers in a cheerless high-rise office outside the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C.
—Ariel Bleicher, IEEE Spectrum, 20 Mar. 2013
That turned an entertaining exhibition into an awkward and cheerless faux-competitive affair.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 19 July 2022
For all his gloom, Mann was not entirely cheerless.
—Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2021
Lawrence’s was among the last, with a green campus full of trees, but a gray, cheerless interior and food that, in his words, looked regurgitated.
—Sarah Enelow-Snyder, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2020
Bishop spent a cold childhood raised by cheerless Calvinist grandparents (her official guardian, Uncle Jack, was reputedly something of a bully), and quickly learned that intense emotional attachments led to distress.
—Scott Bradfield, Washington Post, 8 Nov. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cheerless
Adjective
-
Even the relatively staid premiere stole a handful of grim chuckles thanks to its guest star’s exceedingly blasé delivery of impossibly bleak news.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
9 Mar. 2025
-
Yet if Mickey’s life is suffocatingly bleak, Mickey 17 is anything but.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
7 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Another remembers her lonely childhood with a single mother and resolved it with a partner from a large family and three children.—
Hazlitt,
Hazlitt,
5 Mar. 2025
-
This distinction is important: your parent might live alone without feeling isolated, or conversely, feel lonely despite being surrounded by people.—
Carolyn Rosenblatt,
Forbes,
4 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Party leaders asked their members ahead of the address to maintain a dignified and somber presence in the chamber during Trump's speech.—
Barbara Sprunt,
NPR,
6 Mar. 2025
-
The mix of Black trauma and White philanthropy created a peculiar vibe in the event space, at once somber and thrilling, mournful and hopeful.—
Nicholas Lalla,
WIRED,
4 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Master of maturation Andrea Wilson adds her own tasting notes, describing baking spice, dark fruit, toffee, fragrant citrus, and floral notes on the palate, followed by a round, complex finish.—
Jonah Flicker,
Robb Report,
27 Feb. 2025
-
An open-wide view is way more important than a dark sky.—
Jamie Carter,
Forbes,
27 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
That depressing fact gets reiterated many times, without much variation or additional insight, during Running Point’s 10-episode season.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
27 Feb. 2025
-
In this new techno-dating reality, the number of fights sparked by clothes being left on the floor would dramatically decrease, instead being replaced by not-at-all depressing scenes of men standing alone in their apartments talking to a speaker.—
Nic Juarez,
Vulture,
19 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
This powerful film tells of the friendship between a young man and a peasant farmer who has devoted his life to planting trees throughout his desolate homeland.—
Jeremy Fassler,
Vulture,
2 Mar. 2025
-
Orphaned at 3 years old and robbed of her fortune, she’s dragged aboard a ship sailing for New France by her guardian, only to be abandoned on a desolate island.—
Staff,
The Christian Science Monitor,
20 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Researchers were surprised that the decrease in depressive symptoms was on par or even more significant than the reductions documented in studies of people taking antidepressant medications.—
Brittney Melton,
NPR,
25 Feb. 2025
-
Tragically, they are killed by their mother, who drowns them in a manic depressive episode while their father is away on business.—
Nicole Briese,
People.com,
19 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Kelce, all by his lonesome away from the main field, sprinted through route after route — stop-start motions that require explosive movements off the line and at the top of the routes.—
Sam McDowell,
Kansas City Star,
8 Feb. 2025
-
Flanking Jupiter on one side, going outward from Jupiter will be Io, Europa and Callisto and Ganymede, while all by its lonesome on the other side, will be Ganymede.—
Joe Rao,
Space.com,
5 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cheerless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cheerless. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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