different between listless vs leaden

English

Etymology

From Middle English lystles, equivalent to list (“desire”) +? -less. Compare Dutch lusteloos (“lethargic, listless”). Doublet of lustless.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?stl?s/

Adjective

listless (comparative more listless, superlative most listless)

1. Lacking energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness.
   • 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, ch. 18:

     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.

   • 1861, Charlotte M. Yonge, The Stokesley Secret, ch. 6:

     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!

   • 1901, William Somerset Maugham, The Hero, ch. 21:

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

   • 2005 Nov. 29, Aryn Baker, "John Hardy: Bali Guy," Time:

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

Derived terms

• listlessly
• listlessness

Translations

Anagrams

• slitless

English

Etymology

From Middle English leden, leaden, from Old English l?aden (“leaden, of lead”), equivalent to lead +? -en. Cognate with West Frisian leaden (“leaden”), Dutch loden (“leaden”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?d?n/
• Rhymes: -?d?n

Adjective

leaden (comparative more leaden, superlative most leaden)

1. (dated) Made of lead.
2. Pertaining to or resembling lead; grey, heavy, sluggish.
   • 1818-1819, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Julian and Maddalo

     [...] if man be
     The passive thing you say, I should not see
     Much harm in the religions and old saws
     (Tho' I may never own such leaden laws)
     Which break a teachless nature to the yoke.

3. Dull; darkened with overcast.

   the sky was leaden and thick

   • 1999: Stardust, Neil Gaiman, page 31 (2001 Perennial paperback edition)

     "It was at the end of February..., when the world was cold..., when icy rains fell from the leaden skies in continual drizzling showers."

Translations

Verb

leaden (third-person singular simple present leadens, present participle leadening, simple past and past participle leadened)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become dull or overcast.

Anagrams

• Delena, andele, aneled, leaned, nealed

Middle English

Etymology 1

Verb

leaden

1. Alternative form of leden (“to lead”)

Etymology 2

Adjective

leaden

1. Alternative form of leden (“leaden”)

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?læ???.den/

Adjective

l?aden

1. Alternative form of l?eden

Declension