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Synonyms

rayless

American  
[rey-lis] / ˈreɪ lɪs /

adjective

  1. lacking rays or raylike parts.

  2. unlit, dark, or gloomy.

    a rayless cave.
rayless British  
/ ˈreɪlɪs /

adjective

  1. dark; gloomy

  2. lacking rays

    a rayless flower
"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

Other Word Forms

  • raylessly adverb
  • raylessness noun

Etymology

Origin of rayless

First recorded in 1735–45; ray 1 + -less

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.

I pressed my lips to his once brilliant and now rayless eyes—I swept his hair from his brow, and kissed that too.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Darkness came on, deep as that in the rayless abysses of the caverns under the lava, and still the snow fell thicker.

From A Book of Ghosts by Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)

I despised myself for having been pleased for a moment, like a child, with toys and rattles, and once more sunk down, a prey to the darkest and most rayless despondency.

From The Devil's Elixir Vol. I (of 2) by Hoffmann, E. T. A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus)

The death-cold mist, with ghostly fingers, Shrouds world and soul in rayless night.

From Alaska Days with John Muir by Young, Samual Hall

I sit in darkness and behold no light; Over my soul the waves of agony Have gone, and left me in a rayless night.

From Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion by Various

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.