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dismal science

British  

noun

  1. a name for economics coined by Thomas Carlyle

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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Perhaps, with new technologies and methods of analysis, they can become even rarer, enabling economics to shed the image of a dismal science.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 5, 2026

I’ll inject some of my dismal science here: Saying that a recession is on the horizon doesn’t sound optimistic, but in a buyer’s housing market, there are some positives to recessions.

From Slate Feb. 6, 2023

If economics is "the dismal science," should we start calling polling "the abysmal science"?

From Salon Jan. 8, 2023

You'd think in the 21st century, practitioners of the dismal science would have found some way to control inflation other than putting people out of work.

From Reuters Nov. 17, 2022

This is the science of repulsion, despair, and death; and it has been well denominated "the dismal science."

From The slave trade, domestic and foreign Why It Exists, and How It May Be Extinguished by Carey, H. C. (Henry Charles)

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