[-NESS.] The condition or quality of being listless; † (a) want of relish for some particular object or pursuit (const. of, to) (obs.); (b) languid indifference as to one’s surroundings, or as to what one has to do.
1646. Jenkyn, Remora, 23. There is in the heart, a naturall listlesnes [printed listnesnes] from, and opposition unto a right reformation.
1693. Locke, Educ., § 119. 146. If listlesness and dreaming be his natural Disposition.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., II. vii. 67. I have … A Third Part of Priest-craft in my Head, which perhaps may come abroad and take the Air, if not prevented by my Laziness, Listlesness, or Old Age.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Malt Liquor, Nauseousness at the Stomach, and Lassitude of [sic] Listlessness to Motion.
1776. G. Mason, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), I. 180. Ill health, and a certain listlessness inseparable from it, have prevented my writing … so often.
1795. Montford Castle, II. 282. His lovely mistress … without whom felicity was nothing but listlessness and quietism.
1842. Pusey, Crisis Eng. Ch., 8. The general listlessness which crept over the Church during the last century.
1869. Seeley, Lect. & Ess., ii. 54. The disposition to listlessness which belongs to the military character.
