expressionlessadj.
1.
a. Of the features, voice, etc. Destitute of expression; giving no indication of character, feeling, etc.; inexpressive. Const. of.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [adjective] > not manifesting emotion
stolidc1600
sodden1601
inexpressive1744
neutral1760
expressionless1831
fishy-eyed1836
undemonstrative1846
contained1882
dead-pan1928
stone-faced1932
tight-assed1961
tight-ass1969
1831 J. Wilson in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 29 301 An image as expressionless as the block on which his own buzz-wig was trimmed.
1859 H. Kingsley Recoll. Geoffry Hamlyn I. xiii. 184 He was a small man, with an impenetrable, expressionless face.
1864 J. Crowdy Church Choirmaster 53 Monotonic recitation is more expressionless than reading in the ordinary voice.
1870 C. Dickens Edwin Drood ix. 61 So expressionless of any approach to spontaneity were his face and manner.
b. Expressing nothing, conveying no meaning.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > absence of meaning > [adjective]
emptya1225
sleevelessc1450
dumb1531
insensible1538
senseless1579
weetless1579
unsignificant1603
surd1605
matterless1612
unmeaning1632
non-significative1633
brute1642
shelly1648
insignificant1651
insignificative1660
unsignificative1664
unsignifying1665
unsensed1667
meaningless1728
bilka1734
meanless1734
inexpressive1744
unideal1751
unexpressive1755
idealess1793
unsuggestive1797
tenorless1821
themeless1840
nonsensible1851
inarticulate1855
purportless1865
expressionless1871
vacuous1872
contentless1886
unmeaningful1897
1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture I. 215 But it may..become by wear of sound and shift of sense an expressionless symbol.
2. That finds no expression.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > hiding, concealing from view > keeping from knowledge > keeping from publication > [adjective]
unawnedc1175
unconfesseda1500
unpresented1523
undeclared1526
unrevealed1529
unproclaimed1570
undisclosed1571
unbetrayed1595
mystical1600
unbewrayed1605
undivulged1608
unpublished1608
irrevealed1610
tonguelessa1616
undiscovereda1616
unaffirmeda1631
unprofessed1647
unphrased1663
in poigne1710
napkined1756
unavowed1790
unsignified1809
unsunned1814
expressionless1819
inexpressed1821
unindicated1825
unblazoned1830
inostensible1843
unjournalized1843
unaverred1850
unexhibited1862
unadvertised1864
hermetic1954
1819 P. B. Shelley Cenci iii. i. 44 A wrong, Which, though it be expressionless, is such As asks atonement.
Derivatives
exˈpressionlessly adv.
ΚΠ
1876 G. Meredith Beauchamp's Career III. xii. 227 Rosamund eyed her husband expressionlessly.
exˈpressionlessness n. the state or condition of being destitute of expression, want of expression.
ΚΠ
1865 Cornhill Mag. Aug. 225 Faces..expressive of ‘expressionlessness’.
1888 W. C. Russell Death Ship III. 3 Faces whose expressionlessness forbade your comparing them to sleeping dreamers.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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adj.1819