| English Dictionary |
MIRTHLESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Dictionary entry overview: What does mirthless mean?
• MIRTHLESS (adjective)
The adjective MIRTHLESS has 1 sense:
1. lacking mirth
Familiarity information: MIRTHLESS used as an adjective is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lacking mirth
Similar:
joyless (not experiencing or inspiring joy)
Context examples
It was a curious laugh; distinct, formal, mirthless.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
On this the other women joined, and such a mirthless, hard, soulless laughter rang through the room that it almost made me faint to hear; it seemed like the pleasure of fiends.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness—a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"It is more becoming to have a large nose than two small ones" (Breton proverb)
"When what you want doesn't happen, learn to want what does." (Arabic proverb)
"An idle man is up to no good." (Corsican proverb)