[f. prec. + -NESS.] The quality or state of being uncheerful.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 342. It is a checke to our common lumpishnesse and vncheerefulnesse.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VII. § 231. Those indispositions … grew into a perfect habit of unchearfulness.
1659. J. Arrowsmith, Chain Princ., 395. Uncheerfulness maketh the soul of a man drive heavily, as the chariots of Pharoah did in the red sea.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 494, ¶ 2. There are many Persons, who, by a natural Unchearfulness of Heart,… love to indulge this uncomfortable way of Life.
1733. W. Crawford, Infidelity (1836), 211. Lumpish uncheerfulness may not be taken for gospel sorrow.
