world-weary
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of world-weary
First recorded in 1760–70
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.
The world-weary consumer of news might reasonably wonder if we’re headed into another version of climate alarmism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
She emerged from the experience battle-scarred and world-weary in 1979 and used her worn-down voice to great effect in a blast of future-forward new wave music called "Broken English."
From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2025
Tesla shares fell nearly 9% the next day, thanks to world-weary investors who had heard such overcooked claims from him before.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2024
For “Stress Positions,” the writer-director Theda Hammel shows her hand when a character says, in a world-weary voice-over, that the madness we’re about to witness “happened so long ago.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 2024
Yet the men who sat in them seemed so listless and world-weary that they might have been asleep.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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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.