listlessly

English

Etymology

From listless +‎ -ly.

Adverb

listlessly (comparative more listlessly, superlative most listlessly)

1. In a listless manner; without energy or enthusiasm.
   • 1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 44:

     The lamb bunted several irresponsive objects - never its dam's udder - baaing listlessly.

   • 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods‎^[1], London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 31:

     And as a child stares at the bare walls of a narrow hut, so the gods looked all listlessly upon the worlds, saying: “Will no new thing be?”

   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 521:

     He thrust his head into the aisle. "Boy!" A Chinese in a white coat responded listlessly. "What will you have? Beer?"

   • 2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[2]:

     Since first tossing its cartoonish, good-time cock-rock to the masses in the early ’00s, The Darkness has always fallen back on this defense: The band is a joke, but hey, it’s a good joke. With Hot Cakes—the group’s third album, and first since reforming last year—the laughter has died. In its place is the sad wheeze of the last surviving party balloon slowly, listlessly deflating.