lusterless

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From luster +‎ -less.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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lusterless (comparative more lusterless, superlative most lusterless)

  1. Without luster, dull, not shiny, flat or matte finished.
    Synonym: lackluster
    • 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial:
      The lips were of the usual marble pallor. The eyes were lustreless.
    • 1894, George du Maurier, “Part First”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, pages 11–12:
      His thick, heavy, languid, lustreless black hair fell down behind his ears on to his shoulders, in that musicianlike way that is so offensive to the normal Englishman.
    • 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, published 2001, Part Two, Chapter 5:
      His Chevrolet was larger, but old and unwashed; the mudguards had been dented, cut, welded; one door had been ducoed in a lustreless colour that did not exactly match []
  2. Without brilliance, unremarkable.
    • 1967, William Trevor, “Children of the Headmaster”, in Collected Stories, Penguin, published 1992, page 1237:
      The school was a triumph for her husband after a lustreless career in Hong Kong, but it had brought her low.

Anagrams

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