Lifeless means dead, or with no energy or spirit at all. A lifeless body, a lifeless performance, lifeless eyes.
The literal sense is the language of news reports, where a lifeless body is found. The figurative sense is a critic's word and one of the harshest: a lifeless performance is technically correct and dead on the stage.
1adjectivelifelessDead, or with no energy or spirit at all.
“The fish lay lifeless on the riverbank.”
lifeless is a state.
Old English liflaes, life plus -less, meaning without life.
Old English
līflēas — lifeless
Middle English
lyfles
English, today
lifeless
From Middle English lyfles, lifles, from Old English līflēas (“lifeless”), equivalent to life + -less. Cognate with West Frisian libbensleas (“lifeless”), Dutch levenloos (“lifeless”), German leblos (“lifeless”), Danish livløs (“lifeless”), Swedish livlös (“lifeless”), Icelandic líflaus (“lifeless”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA