neurasthenic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

People have always read fiction hoping to better themselves, but Marcel Proust, a sickly, snobbish neurasthenic so sensitive that he worked and slept in a cork-lined bedroom, seems a dubious source for life lessons.

From Slate • Mar. 26, 2021

With a neurasthenic mother now in charge, the Nichols family hobbled forward, neither well-to-do nor destitute.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 26, 2021

Personally, I can’t even think of forty-seven botanicals, and, unless the company is selling directly to neurasthenic beagles, I can’t conceive of any customer who will sniff out every aroma.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 2, 2019

Macon is known familiarly as Milkman, a bitter nickname stemming from the widespread knowledge that his unhappy, neurasthenic mother, “the daughter of the richest Negro doctor in town,” breast-fed him long past babyhood.

From New York Times • Aug. 6, 2019

Had Izzy been a different kind of child, this might have led her to be cautious, or neurasthenic, or paranoid.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng