joyless

comparative more joyless · superlative most joyless

1. Without joy; unhappy, sad.

   Without Joy, my life is joyless!

   2 more examples

   The Besht preached that the simple man, imbued with native faith and able to pray fervently and wholeheartedly with a sense of joy in his heart, was nearer and dearer to God than the learned but joyless formalist spending his whole life in the study of Talmud.

   2017, Velvel Pasternak, Behind the Music, Stories, Anecdotes, Articles and Reflections, page 225

   “It comes from chasing the fun,” says Regan. “A lot of the working-class cinema I grew up watching was so joyless. Endless trauma.”

   2023 August 24, Cath Clarke, “‘A lot of working-class cinema is so joyless’: Charlotte Regan on her candy-coloured debut Scrapper”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: sad, cheerless