boredom
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of boredom
Explanation
Boredom can make you do crazy things, like watching terrible old game shows on television or eating the bag of chocolate chips you find in the freezer. The feeling of being bored or uninterested in what you're doing is boredom. Everyone experiences boredom sometimes. The feeling that nothing catches your interest, that everything's dull and flat, sums up the state of boredom. Too much time on your hands can result in boredom, and so can the tediousness of doing the same thing over and over again, like a dreary task at a job. The word boredom comes from something called a "boring tool", a kind of drill that works slowly and repetitively; around 1768, bore, meaning "be tiresome," became a popular slang term, and boredom followed.
Vocabulary lists containing boredom
"Play Ball!"
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-dom and -hood
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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.
Boredom serves an important purpose -- it signals the need to stop an action and find an alternative project.
From Science Daily • Mar. 28, 2024
A reminder to parents soldiering through the summer: Boredom has its virtues.
From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2023
Boredom sparked a rediscovery of that love as an adult, this time during the unending monotony of pandemic-era lockdowns.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 3, 2023
"Boredom hangs like a low cloud in the classroom."
From BBC • Feb. 1, 2022
Boredom has settled in like a cancer in the building, ready to eat away at their sanity.
From "The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Book Four; Origin)" by James Dashner
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.
