listless

comparative more listless · superlative most listless

1. Lacking energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness.

   The scene with Mrs. Wallace had broken his spirit, and he was listless now, indifferent to what happened.

   1901, William Somerset Maugham, chapter 21, in The Hero

   3 more examples

   I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little boat, watching the clouds, and listening to the rippling of the waves, silent and listless.

   1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, pages 2–3

   What an entirely different set of beings were those Stokesley children in lesson-time. . . . Poor, listless, stolid, deplorable logs, with bowed backs and crossed ankles, pipy voices and heavy eyes!

   1861, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 6, in The Stokesley Secret

   “Listless, inattentive, distracted,” he recited. “A daydreamer. Tries his best, but is too slow.”

   2005 November 29, Aryn Baker, “John Hardy: Bali Guy”, in Time

   Synonyms: languid, spiritless, adiaphroistic, apathetic, apathistical, blasé, blithe, deaf