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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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cheerless
For three days, things were cheerless for Courtney Williams.
—
Mike Cook, Twin Cities, 28 May 2025
Gomez gestured across the street toward 100 Centre Street—the criminal courthouse, a cheerless Art Deco building the color of cinder blocks.
—Sarah Lustbader, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2025
Gomez gestured across the street toward 100 Centre Street—the criminal courthouse, a cheerless Art Deco building the color of cinder blocks.
—Sarah Lustbader, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2025
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
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
Mike Cook, Twin Cities, 28 May 2025
Gomez gestured across the street toward 100 Centre Street—the criminal courthouse, a cheerless Art Deco building the color of cinder blocks.
—Sarah Lustbader, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2025
Gomez gestured across the street toward 100 Centre Street—the criminal courthouse, a cheerless Art Deco building the color of cinder blocks.
—Sarah Lustbader, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2025
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
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cheerless
Adjective
-
Directed by Paul Schrader with a script by Bret Easton Ellis, this spiritually bleak L.A. drama features Lohan’s most daring performance, and probably the only one that manages to break completely with her childhood and adolescent roles.—
Tom Gliatto,
People.com,
9 Aug. 2025
-
The situation is bleak enough that, even if aid increases rapidly in the coming weeks, deaths from starvation are almost certain to rise.—
Isaac Chotiner,
New Yorker,
5 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
Hero Ellen Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) lonely fight for survival gave way to a military mission to vanquish aliens ravaging a human colony; Cameron filled the frame with cocky Marines, boxy space tanks, and an adorable orphan who finds in Ripley a surrogate mother.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
5 Aug. 2025
-
The movie Marty was based on Chayefsky’s television drama about two lonely people finding love.—
Greg Evans,
Deadline,
5 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
High-contrast, stark black-and-white tones, water droplets and a somber expression emerging from shadows.—
Evan J. Schwartz,
Forbes.com,
6 Aug. 2025
-
There were no somber emotions this time from Dončić’s side, with Balkan music blasting throughout the practice facility before he and Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka held a news conference to celebrate Dončić’s extension.—
Khobi Price,
Chicago Tribune,
3 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
Sydney Sweeney’s new dark crime comedy Americana is new in theaters this weekend.—
Tim Lammers,
Forbes.com,
15 Aug. 2025
-
Flames and dark smoke billowed over a cement factory that was set alight by a wildfire that swept through olive groves and forests and disrupted rail traffic on the outskirts of the Greek city of Patras, west of Athens.—
USA Today,
USA Today,
14 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
The fact that the jokes about Joao Felix come so easily is a little depressing.—
Liam Twomey,
New York Times,
2 Aug. 2025
-
Ari Aster’s first feature kicked off with the accidental decapitation of a child, and each subsequent film has only gotten more depressing from there.—
Nate Jones,
Vulture,
18 July 2025
Adjective
-
The Emperor Titus attempted but failed to revive Pompeii and its sibling town Herculaneum soon after the catastrophe, leaving the desolate region largely abandoned until its rediscovery in 1748.—
Andrew Paul Aug 7,
Popular Science,
7 Aug. 2025
-
In Namibia, Shipwreck Lodge in the desolate Skeleton Coast National Park and the secluded Hoanib Valley Camp are oases of luxury in otherworldly settings.—
Erina Pinar,
Travel + Leisure,
7 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
Use of an oxytocin nasal spray combined with psychotherapy may have a greater effect on reducing depressive symptoms in people with mental health disorders than either treatment alone, a recent study reported.—
The Washington Post,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
5 Aug. 2025
-
More than 18% of adults in that age group have had a depressive episode, according to a report from the National Institute of Mental Health.—
Maggie Menderski,
The Courier-Journal,
1 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
Dylan took the exit on the county line and pulled into the lonesome border truck stop, pissed in the bathroom, paid for Bob’s coffee with cream and with sugar and took out three hundred dollars at the ATM.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
13 Aug. 2025
-
Not trying to beat the Dodgers, Giants, Padres and Diamondbacks all by his lonesome.—
Sean Keeler,
Denver Post,
19 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cheerless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cheerless. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.
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