careworn

Etymology

for a job at the Lockheed Corporation in Los Angeles, California, USA, in April 1940. (From the collection of the US National Archives and Records Administration.)]] From care (“sorrow, worry”) + worn.

adj

  1. Worn down by cares: showing the signs of long-term stress, tired and haggard due to prolonged worry.
    The weeks of working hard to look after his sick family left him looking careworn.
    The effect upon his personal appearance of this wear and tear of his intellect was striking and manifest. The hue of youth and health entirely departed from his cheeks, and he looked so sad and careworn, that it was quite a terrible thing to look upon a young lad so, as it were, upon the threshold of existence, and in whom anxious thoughts were making such war upon the physical energies. 1846–1847, attributed to James Malcolm Rymer and/or Thomas Peckett Prest, “The String of Pearls: A Romance”, in Edward Lloyd, editor, The People’s Periodical and Family Library, London: E. Lloyd, →OCLC, chapter 14 (“Tobias’s Threat, and Its Consequences”); republished as Sweeney Todd: The String of Pearls: The Original Victorian Classic, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2015, page 121
    Played acoustically, glacially paced and sung in Kristofferson's parched, age-weathered voice, even his more lighthearted songs – Jesus Was a Capricorn, Best Of All Possible Worlds – were leant an eerie gravitas, while Me and Bobby McGee and Sunday Morning Coming Down sounded heartbreakingly careworn and poignant. 26 June 2017, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 Verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and More”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2017-11-12

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