Adjective

(en adjective)

Boring, monotonous, time consuming, wearisome.

* {{quote-book

, year= , author=Arthur Schopenhauer , title=The Art of Literature , chapter=2 citation , passage=A work is objectively tedious' when it contains the defect in question; that is to say, when its author has no perfectly clear thought or knowledge to communicate. For if a man has any clear thought or knowledge in him, his aim will be to communicate it, and he will direct his energies to this end; so that the ideas he furnishes are everywhere clearly expressed. The result is that he is neither diffuse, nor unmeaning, nor confused, and consequently not ' tedious .}}

* {{quote-book

, year= , author=Arthur Schopenhauer , title=The Art of Literature , chapter=2 citation , passage=The other kind of tediousness is only relative: a reader may find a work dull because he has no interest in the question treated of in it, and this means that his intellect is restricted. The best work may, therefore, be tedious' subjectively, ' tedious .}}

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.”