a. [f. JOY sb. + -LESS.]
1. Destitute of joy; having, feeling or manifesting no joy; sad, cheerless. † Sometimes const. of.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 252. I haf ben a Ioylez Iuelere.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1284. Full ioyles he rydes. Ay he gretis as he gase.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 1711 (1594), M i b. VVhile with a ioylesse smile, shee turnes awaie The face.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 766. Not in the bought smile Of Harlots, loveless, joyless, unindeard.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 336. The youthful Bull … Forsakes his Food, and pining for the Lass, Is joyless of the Grove.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., II. § 13. It will barely subsist, in a dull joyless insipid state.
1883. S. A. Barnett, in 19th Cent., Nov., 811. The lives of the people are joyless…. When work ceases, the one resource is excitement; and thus their lives are joyless.
2. Causing or affording no joy; cheerless, dismal, dreary.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 146. Hit watz a joyles gyn þat Ionas watz inne.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., IV. ii. 67. A joylesse, dismall, blacke & sorrowfull issue, Heere is the babe as loathsome as a toad.
1740. Wesley, Hymn, ‘Christ whose glory,’ ii. Joyless is the day’s return Till Thy mercy’s beams I see.
1804. J. Grahame, Sabbath. On other days the man of toil is doomed To eat his joyless bread, lonely.
a. 1847. Eliza Cook, There would I be, v. The crowd and the city are joyless to me.
Hence Joylessly adv.; Joylessness.
1625. Donne, Serm. Ps. lxii. 7. A faintnesse of heart, a chearlesnesse, a joylesnesse of spirit.
1766. G. Canning, Anti-Lucretius, V. 402. The lazy blood moves joylessly.
1881. Mary C. Hay, Missing, III. 240. Gravely and joylessly looking up into Alfred’s face.
1884. Spectator, 4 Oct., 1307/2. The general joylessness of the lives of the poor.
