Word.ws English Dictionary

low-hearted

low-hearted adjective: depressed, despondent, or dispirited.

Adjective

low-hearted (comparative more low-hearted, superlative most low-hearted)

  1. Depressed, despondent, or dispirited
    • Weary, slack-jointed, low-hearted as they were, the deadly Coast-fever fell upon them, and they shivered, and burned,and groaned,and raved, and leaped into holes, or rolled into campfires.1886 April – 1887 April, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, “The Trials of Faith”, in Springhaven. A Tale of the Great War. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], published...
    • The afternoon Bonita an' I were married, when Gene an' the padre had gone, I was happy one minute an' low-hearted the next.1914 January, Zane Grey, The Light of Western Stars: A Romance, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC
  2. Morally reprehensible, cowardly, or untrustworthy.
    • A base, low-hearted wretch, as you justly call him, with all his pride of ancestry; and more an enemy to himself with regard to his present and future happiness, than to you, in the barbarous and ungrateful wrongs he has done you; […]1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC
    • I would not find myself at thirty brigaded with a set of low-hearted priests and seminarists, who have no other weapons than treachery, nor any strategy but lies.1865, Charles James Lever, Tony Butler: A Novel, page 178
  3. (obsolete) Modest and unassuming.
    • His poor countrymen, seeing his boldness, began to fetch deep sighs and groan like so many chained lions, speaking so loud that the khan as well as the four low-hearted chiefs, could hear them.1792, Emin Joseph Emin, Amy Apcar, Life and Adventures of Emin Joseph Emin, 1726-1809
    • He was an aged man, with a withered countenance, down-looking, and low-hearted, probably (I hope it was so) the outcome of remorse.1883, Samual Carter Hall, Retrospect of a Long Life: From 1815 to 1883, page 486

Examples of low-hearted in a sentence

  • A dull, sulky, low-hearted state has always been natural to me, relieved only by quick bursts of excitement (not happiness) over my own art, other men's art, sex & sport.2006, Malcolm Gillies, David Pear, Mark Carroll, Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger, →ISBN:
  • Now they harm the people, and the malign influence behind this lies with low-hearted officials who put all their efforts into catching them.2004, John Knight, Wildlife in Asia: Cultural Perspectives, →ISBN:
  • I was low-hearted in my ways, and she was hoping in hers, like her father was.2004, Kathleen Elizabeth Diffley, To Live and Die: Collected Stories of the Civil War, 1861–1876, →ISBN:

Forms of low-hearted

comparativemore low-hearted
superlativemost low-hearted
alternative formlowhearted

Origin of low-hearted

From low + hearted.

Words formed from low-hearted

Questions about low-hearted

What does low-hearted mean?
Low-hearted means depressed, despondent, or dispirited.
How do you use low-hearted in a sentence?
A dull, sulky, low-hearted state has always been natural to me, relieved only by quick bursts of excitement (not happiness) over my own art, other men's art, sex & sport.
What part of speech is low-hearted?
Low-hearted is an adjective.

Words near low-hearted in the dictionary

  1. low-hanging
  2. low-hanging fruit
  3. low-hanging fruits
  4. low-hat
  5. low-hats
  6. low-hearted
  7. low-heartedly
  8. low-heartedness
  9. low-heeled
  10. low-impact
  11. low-income

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: low-hearted (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “low-hearted.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/low-hearted. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.