humorlessly

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hu·mor·less

(hyo͞o′mər-lĭs)

adj.

1. Lacking a sense of humor.

2. Said or done without humor: "She winked at me, but it was humorless; a wink of warning" (Truman Capote).

hu′mor·less·ly adv.

hu′mor·less·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Adv.

humorlessly - in a humorless manner; "he reacted rather humorlessly to these rumors"

humourlessly

humorously - in a humorous manner; "Dickens had humorously suggested a special service of intercession at St. Paul's Cathedral"

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References in periodicals archive ?

During the week after the Jasmine non-protests in Beijing, a plainclothes female police officer and two patrolmen visited my family while I was at work across town, asking politely but humorlessly for our resident registrations.

Tiananmen square at 25: memories of Tiananmen square in 1989, as told (and photographed) by a journalist who was there

The man humorlessly plays along and picks the wrong hand.

Love that Tames: anti-heroes, power and Islamic reform reflected in two Iranian films

As soon as Hike one of these poems I feel slightly defiled, as if I'd been shoehorned into a receptive frame of mind because of its topicality: a faintly hectoring thematic insistence leaves the impression of a battalion of earnest citizens humorlessly executing the plaintive mission at hand.