Adjective

(en adjective)

Characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar.

*, I.43:

all manner of silks were already become so vile and abject, that was any man seene to weare them, he was presently judged to be some countrie fellow, or mechanicall man.

Related to mechanics (the branch of physics that deals with forces acting on mass).

Related to mechanics (the design and construction of machines).

Done by machine.

Using mechanics (the design and construction of machines): being a machine.

As if performed by a machine: lifeless or mindless.

(of a person) Acting as if one were a machine: lifeless or mindless.

*, chapter=15

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.}}

(informal) Handy with machines.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Lacking energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness.

* 1818 , , Frankenstein , ch. 18:

I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little boat, watching the clouds and listening to the rippling of the waves, silent and listless .

* 1861 , , The Stokesley Secret , ch. 6:

What an entirely different set of beings were those Stokesley children in lesson-time. . . . Poor, listless , stolid, deplorable logs, with bowed backs and crossed ankles, pipy voices and heavy eyes!

* 1901 , , The Hero , ch. 21:

The scene with Mrs. Wallace had broken his spirit, and he was listless now, indifferent to what happened.

* 2005 Nov. 29, Aryn Baker, " John Hardy: Bali Guy," Time :

“Listless , inattentive, distracted,” he recited. “A daydreamer. Tries his best, but is too slow.”