a. [f. LOW a. + SPIRIT sb. + -ED2.] Having low spirits. † a. Mean in spirit; abject, base, cowardly, paltry (obs.). b. Wanting in animation or sprightliness; dejected, dispirited.
a. 1588. Shaks., L. L. L., I. i. 250. That low spirited Swaine, that base Minow of thy myrth.
1655. E. Terry, Voy. E. Ind., 79. People … so low-spirited … that they dare not fight.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 67. Low-spirited scoundrels, who rob the widow and the fatherless.
1795. Ld. Auckland, Corr. (1862), III. 283. This country is very low-spirited as to continental politics.
b. 1753. N. Torriano, Gangr. Sore Throat, 120. She was very low-spirited and hysterical.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina, xxiii. (1791), I. 134. When we returned home, we were all low-spirited.
1833. J. H. Newman, Lett. (1891), I. 432. I was low-spirited about the state of things and thought nothing could be done.
1869. Claridge, Cold Water Cure, 55. Where the patient is low spirited or unwell.
Hence Low-spiritedness, the condition of being low-spirited. † a. Cowardice, meanness (obs.). b. Dejection, depression, faint-heartedness.
1652. J. Wright, trans. Camus’ Nat. Paradox, VII. 145. Our low-spiritedness stretched out the neck to this blow.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 230. Nor shou’d I … charge ’em with meanness and insufficiency on the account of this low-spiritedness which they discover.
1741–70. Mrs. Carter, Lett. (1808), 351. The low spiritedness … of which you complain, assures me you cannot be well.
1812. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XXXIV. 410. The reverse of low-spiritedness is gaiety.
