melancholiac

[ mel-uhn-koh-lee-ak ]

adjective
  1. affected with melancholia.

noun
  1. a person who is affected with melancholia.

Origin of melancholiac

1
First recorded in 1860–65; melancholi(a) + -ac

Words Nearby melancholiac

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use melancholiac in a sentence

  • I dare say I am—but I do object to being made out a hopeless melancholiac!

  • She was as used to loneliness as a hotel melancholiac; the people they had known had drifted away to far suburbs.

    The Innocents | Sinclair Lewis
  • A man subjected long to that soul-cramping stress, with no outlet or abatement, would have become a melancholiac.

    The Tempering | Charles Neville Buck
  • His attitude toward them is that of the paranoiac, vindictive, rather than that of the melancholiac, humiliated.

  • In short, she gave them the impression that Alfred was a moping melancholiac.

    Hard Cash | Charles Reade