Literary notes about enervated (AI summary)
The term "enervated" is often employed by writers to evoke a state of drained vitality—whether physical, intellectual, or moral. In some works, it paints a picture of bodies worn down by sedentary habits or the oppressive weight of luxury, as seen when physical fatigue or climatic harshness weakens characters ([1], [2], [3]). In other texts, the word serves as a metaphor for a broader decay, suggesting that both the mind and institutions have been sapped of their force by indulgence, corruption, or prolonged hardship ([4], [5], [6]). This dual application enriches the narrative, allowing authors to capture the subtle interplay between external conditions and internal degradation, ultimately portraying characters and societies that are diminished in spirit and strength ([7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13]).
- This vice not only debauched the mind, but by sedentary confinement and the want of seasonable repose enervated the body.
— from Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2Revised, Enlarged, and Enriched by John Frederick Schroeder - Then they walked along in silence, enervated by the warmth of the air.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - The enervated troops left the hot 87 humid climate of Manila for the cold windy climate of North China.
— from China Revolutionized by John Stuart Thomson - As a necessary consequence the vicious practice has not only enervated their minds but made their "wealth small and their want great."
— from The Hindoos as They Are
A Description of the Manners, Customs and the Inner Life of Hindoo Society in Bengal by Sivachandra Vasu - A spirit of speculation and adventure enervated their people, and led in time to commercial bankruptcy and political disaster.
— from The Railroad Question
A historical and practical treatise on railroads, and remedies for their abuses by William Larrabee - Not all the eloquence of Demosthenes could breathe life into a body which luxury and the arts had once enervated.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - That men accustomed to hard labor will endure more fatigue, than those of sedentary or enervated habits, needs no argument to prove.
— from A Dissertation on the Medical Properties and Injurious Effects of the Habitual Use of Tobacco by A. (Alvan) McAllister - It was this concept that also led Purney to his unusual theory of enervated diction.
— from A Full Enquiry into the Nature of the Pastoral (1717) by Thomas Purney - Like Hannibal's soldiers on the fertile plains of Lombardy, they had become enervated in the luxury of their beautiful valley.
— from Cathedrals of Spain by John A. (John Allyne) Gade - What was enervated in him had to do with his excessive fastidiousness and his want of hopefulness, his mental and moral languor.
— from Landseer's Dogs and Their Stories by Sarah Tytler - They had become so enervated by luxury that they had lost all military spirit and had well-nigh forgotten the use of arms.
— from Ocean's Story; or, Triumphs of Thirty Centuries
Maritime Adventures, Achievements, Explorations, Discoveries and Inventions; and of the Rise and Progress of Ship-Building and Ocean Navigation, from the Ark to the Iron Steamships by Frank B. (Frank Boott) Goodrich - There is in the soul of every man something naturally soft, low, enervated in a manner, and languid.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero - The Assyrians reigned over the East, till the sceptre of Ninus and Semiramis dropped from the hands of their enervated successors.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon