gloom
verb
- to look, feel, or act sullen or despondent
- to be or become overcast
- to loom up dimly
- to make dark, murky, or somber : make gloomy
noun
- level of light so dim that there are physiological and psychological effects
- partial or total darkness
- a dark or shadowy place
- lowness of spirits : dejection
- an atmosphere of despondency
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ɡluːm/ / /ɡlum/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English glōm (“gloaming, twilight, darkness”), from Proto-West Germanic *glōm, from Proto-Germanic *glōmaz (“gleam, shimmer, sheen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). The English word is cognate with Norwegian glom (“transparent membrane”), Scots gloam (“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).
- Darkness, dimness, or obscurity.
“the gloom of a forest, or of midnight”
“Here was a surprise, and a sad one for me, for I perceived that I had slept away a day, and that the sun was setting for another night. And yet it mattered little, for night or daytime there was no light to help me in this horrible place; and though my eyes had grown accustomed to the gloom, I could make out nothing to show me where to work.”
- A depressing, despondent, or melancholic atmosphere.
“A sudden little river crossed my path / As unexpected as a serpent comes. / No sluggish tide congenial to the glooms— / This, as it frothed by, might have been a bath / For the fiend's glowing hoof—to see the wrath / Of its black eddy bespate with flakes and spumes.”
“Although it's always crowded You still can find some room For broken-hearted lovers To cry there in their gloom.”
- Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
“A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits.”
- A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English glōm (“gloaming, twilight, darkness”), from Proto-West Germanic *glōm, from Proto-Germanic *glōmaz (“gleam, shimmer, sheen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). The English word is cognate with Norwegian glom (“transparent membrane”), Scots gloam (“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).
- To be dark or gloomy.
“Here, while the proud their long drawn pomps diſplay, / There the black gibbet glooms beſide the way.”
“Around all the dark forest gloomed.”
- To look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.
“Her face gathers, furrows, glooms; arching eyebrows wrinkle into horizontals, and a tinge of bitterness unsmooths the cheek and robs the lip of sweetened grace. She is evidently perturbed.”
“Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something.”
- To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.
“A black yew gloom'd the stagnant air.”
- To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
“For see you not, dear love, / Such a mood as that, which lately gloom'd / Your fancy when you saw me following you, / Must make me fear still more you are not mine, […]”
“Good Heaven! What ſorrows gloom'd that parting day, / That called them from their native walks away; […]”
- To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.