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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

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

And Last: PAThOLOGY: The dismal science of figuring out which toilet jokes the Empress will think are funny.

From Washington Post May 14, 2020

Economy is called the dismal science because it pretends to be one, disguising its uncertainties and shifting fashions with mathematical formulae.

From After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Vaknin, Samuel

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