| Stanley has one of the most joyless birthday parties imaginable thrown in his honour, with an undercurrent of menace never far from the surface. |
| The pleasure of buying a house there had turned into a draining and joyless slog and we'd had enough. |
| It's a pity you're distracted all the time by the plotless, joyless machinations of everyone else involved. |
| Even so, one must read between the lines to discover the full impact on her of the long joyless union with Thomas. |
| A crowd that clutched parcels of packaged joy had gathered around a joyless, shoeless vagrant who was dressed in newspaper-stuffed tatters. |
| York endured a joyless visit to Pontefract as they were convincingly beaten 24-0 in a Powergen Yorkshire One result. |
