lusterless
adjUK /ˈlʌstələs/ · US /ˈlʌstɚləs/
Etymology From luster + -less.
1
Without luster, dull, not shiny, flat or matte finished.
- The lips were of the usual marble pallor. The eyes were lustreless.1844, Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial:
- His thick, heavy, languid, lustreless black hair fell down behind his ears on to his shoulders, in that musicianlike way that is so offensive to the normal Englishman.1894, George du Maurier, “Part First”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, pages 11–12:
1 more example
- His Chevrolet was larger, but old and unwashed; the mudguards had been dented, cut, welded; one door had been ducoed in a lustreless colour that did not exactly match […]1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, published 2001, Part Two, Chapter 5:
2
Without brilliance, unremarkable.
- The school was a triumph for her husband after a lustreless career in Hong Kong, but it had brought her low.1967, William Trevor, “Children of the Headmaster”, in Collected Stories, Penguin, published 1992, page 1237:
- Derived terms
- lusterlessly, lusterlessness