depressing

adjective

de·​press·​ing di-ˈpre-siŋ 

dē-

: that depresses

especially : causing emotional depression

a depressing story

depressingly

di-ˈpre-siŋ-lē 

dē-

adverb

Synonyms

• black
• bleak
• cheerless
• chill
• Cimmerian
• cloudy
• cold
• comfortless
• dark
• darkening
• depressive
• desolate
• dire
• disconsolate
• dismal
• drear
• dreary
• dreich [chiefly Scottish]
• elegiac
• elegiacal
• forlorn
• funereal
• gloomy
• glum
• godforsaken
• gray
• grey
• lonely
• lonesome
• lugubrious
• miserable
• morbid
• morose
• murky
• plutonian
• saturnine
• sepulchral
• solemn
• somber
• sombre
• sullen
• sunless
• tenebrific
• tenebrous
• wretched

Examples of depressing in a Sentence

This rainy weather is depressing.

He paints a depressing picture of modern life.

Recent Examples on the Web

Thanks for following along. jen chaney Updated Nov. 5, 2024, 11:20 PM EST In all seriousness, this is depressing as hell Kornacki has been sharing a lot of percentage points and weird names of counties in the Midwest — Winnebago? — for the past five-plus hours. —Jen Chaney, Vulture, 6 Nov. 2024

Loading your audio article The national election news was downright depressing for many in the Bay Area, but there was a lot of cause for celebration among local candidates Tuesday night. —Sal Pizarro, The Mercury News, 7 Nov. 2024

Dreadful game of the week: Cleveland Browns at Philadelphia Eagles — The Browns are just depressing, saddled with the debacle that is the acquisition of quarterback Deshaun Watson, whose numbers are just dreadful. —Jim Reineking, USA TODAY, 11 Oct. 2024

This is staggeringly depressing for someone like me who spends a large part of his working life trying to convey the basics of security hygiene to a non-technical audience. —Davey Winder, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1629, in the meaning defined above