world-weary
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- world-weariness noun
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
Brian Cox is one of Hollywood’s go-to guys when they need to convey something hard-edged and world-weary.
From Salon • Dec. 9, 2025
Each show reflects in its own way the influence of a gritty genre that situated world-weary protagonists in cold, uncaring worlds armed only with their wits, fists, guns and rat-a-tat dialogue.
From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 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
He was slow and flaccid, with the kind of world-weary negativism you might find in employees behind the counter of a fast-food restaurant at a highway rest stop.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
