WEARINESS

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Temporary loss of strength and energy resulting from hard physical or mental work

Example:

weariness overcame her after twelve hours and she fell asleep

Synonyms:

fatigue; tiredness; weariness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("weariness" is a kind of...):

temporary state (a state that continues for a limited time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "weariness"):

asthenopia; eyestrain (a tiredness of the eyes caused by prolonged close work by a person with an uncorrected vision problem)

jet lag (fatigue and sleep disturbance resulting from disruption of the body's normal circadian rhythm as a result of jet travel)

exhaustion (extreme fatigue)

grogginess (a groggy state resulting from weariness)

logginess; loginess (a dull and listless state resulting from weariness)

Derivation:

weary (physically and mentally fatigued)

Credits

Context examples:

To any thing, every thing—to time, chance, circumstance, slow effects, sudden bursts, perseverance and weariness, health and sickness.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It appeared first in a general dissatisfaction with everybody about her, while she remained in the rooms, which speedily brought on considerable weariness and a violent desire to go home.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Alleyne was plodding down the slope upon one side, when he saw an old dame coming towards him upon the other, limping with weariness and leaning heavily upon a stick.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Gradually weariness grew upon me; a numbness, an occasional stupor, fell upon my mind even in the midst of my terrors, until sleep at last supervened and in my sea-tossed coracle I lay and dreamed of home and the old Admiral Benbow.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It was in such a storm, and the worst that we had experienced, that I cast a weary glance to leeward, not in quest of anything, but more from the weariness of facing the elemental strife, and in mute appeal, almost, to the wrathful powers to cease and let us be.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

With a transport of glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow; and it was not till weariness had begun to succeed, that I was suddenly, in the top fit of my delirium, struck through the heart by a cold thrill of terror.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

You could not walk the streets without catching sight of the gipsy-faced, keen-eyed men whose plain clothes told of their thin purses as plainly as their listless air showed their weariness of a life of forced and unaccustomed inaction.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sometimes he tripped on the rope, or stumbled, and at all times he was awkward, betraying a weariness so great that the sled now and again ran upon his heels.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

When life became an aching weariness, death was ready to soothe away to everlasting sleep.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)