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heartless

adj
/ˈhɑːt.lɪs/UK/ˈhɑɹt.lɪs/US

Etymology

From Middle English hertles, herteles, from Old English heortlēas (“without courage; listless”), equivalent to heart + -less. Cognate with German herzlos.

  1. inherited from heortlēas — “without courage; listless”
  2. inherited from hertles

Definitions

  1. Without feeling, emotion, or concern for others

    Without feeling, emotion, or concern for others; uncaring; cruel.

    • His heartless actions and cold manner left her saddened and feeling alone.
    • The world is a dangerous, violent place […] and the only true refuge from this heartless world is the family.
    • It's safer to be heartless than mindless. The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless.

  2. Without a physical heart.

  3. Listless, unenthusiastic.

    • Near-synonyms: spiritless, unhearty
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Without courage

      Without courage; fearful, cowardly.

      • Cecilia then, though almost heartless, resolved upon talking with Mr. Harrel himself […].

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at heartless. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01heartless02unenthusiastic03enthusiasm04god05tyrant06cruelly07cruel

A definitional loop anchored at heartless. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at heartless

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA