DEPRESSING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does depressing mean? 

• DEPRESSING (adjective)
  The adjective DEPRESSING has 1 sense:

1. causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy

  Familiarity information: DEPRESSING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEPRESSING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy

Synonyms:

cheerless; depressing; uncheerful

Context example:

an uncheerful place

Similar:

blue; dark; dingy; disconsolate; dismal; drab; drear; dreary; gloomy; grim; sorry (causing dejection)

melancholy; somber; sombre (grave or even gloomy in character)

Also:

unhappy (experiencing or marked by or causing sadness or sorrow or discontent)

joyless (not experiencing or inspiring joy)

Attribute:

cheer; cheerfulness; sunniness; sunshine (the quality of being cheerful and dispelling gloom)

Antonym:

cheerful (being full of or promoting cheer; having or showing good spirits)

 Context examples 

The atmosphere of the room was of a horrible and depressing stuffiness.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"I've been doing this research for a while, but it was depressing to see," Lebreton said.

(Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Growing Rapidly, Study Finds, VOA)

Although the exact mechanism of action is unknown, halothane provides relatively rapid induction of anesthesia by depressing the central nervous system, thereby producing a reversible loss of consciousness and sensation.

(Halothane, NCI Thesaurus)

To me, with my nerves worked up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the vault.

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

Their small mental caliber was depressing to him, and he was anxious to get away from them.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A synthetic butylamino-benzoate derivative related to tetracaine and a peripherally acting antitussive, nonnarcotic Benzonatate reduces the cough reflex by anesthetizing and depressing mechanoreceptors in the respiratory passages, lungs, and pleura.

(Benzonatate, NCI Thesaurus)

Saturn will be close to the Sun, a depressing aspect, so you might have to delay something you want to do or buy, such as acquire a new car or computer or take an overseas trip.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

There will be some difficulty in our way, Mrs. Norris, observed Sir Thomas, as to the distinction proper to be made between the girls as they grow up: how to preserve in the minds of my daughters the consciousness of what they are, without making them think too lowly of their cousin; and how, without depressing her spirits too far, to make her remember that she is not a Miss Bertram.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The whole place was depressing.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)