cheerless

American

[cheer-lis] / ˈtʃɪər lɪs /

adjective

without cheer; joyless; gloomy.

drab, cheerless surroundings.

cheerless British

/ ˈtʃɪəlɪs /

adjective

dreary, gloomy, or pessimistic

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

cheerlessly adverb
cheerlessness noun

Etymology

Origin of cheerless

First recorded in 1570–80; cheer + -less

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But in the camp's cheerless food market we met women who pointed out that their children are guilty of nothing and pleaded for them to have a normal life.

From BBC • Jan. 29, 2026

The cheerless rollout of GPT-5 could bring the day of reckoning closer.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 20, 2025

Our beginning-of-the-year customs go hand in hand with its bleakness as we choose to make ourselves more cheerless by abstaining from things we enjoy, while pushing ourselves towards the more mundane and less exciting.

From Salon • Jan. 29, 2025

Set in an especially cheerless pocket of Southern California, where high-voltage lines loom over the sparsely treed landscape, it opens in the summer.

From New York Times • Mar. 2, 2023

The hobbits were glad to leave the cheerless lands and the perilous Road behind them; but this new country seemed threatening and unfriendly.

From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023