neurasthenic
Americanadjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of neurasthenic
First recorded in 1875–80; neurasthen(ia) + -ic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
With a neurasthenic mother now in charge, the Nichols family hobbled forward, neither well-to-do nor destitute.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 26, 2021
Personally, I can’t even think of forty-seven botanicals, and, unless the company is selling directly to neurasthenic beagles, I can’t conceive of any customer who will sniff out every aroma.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 2, 2019
Macon is known familiarly as Milkman, a bitter nickname stemming from the widespread knowledge that his unhappy, neurasthenic mother, “the daughter of the richest Negro doctor in town,” breast-fed him long past babyhood.
From New York Times • Aug. 6, 2019
For most of its 400-plus pages, American Mirror tells the story of a neurasthenic illustrator who was almost willfully uninteresting.
From Slate • Nov. 6, 2013
Had Izzy been a different kind of child, this might have led her to be cautious, or neurasthenic, or paranoid.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
