I. ˈglüm verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English gloumen, gloumben; akin to Middle High German be glūmen to make turbid, deceive, Norwegian dialect glome to stare somberly and suspiciously, Old Swedish glūna to look askance, Old English geolu yellow — more at yellow
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to be, look, or act sullen, displeased, or annoyed : frown , lower , scowl , glower
glooming over his coffee at the way he had been tricked
b. : to be, look, or act low in spirits : feel or show dejection or cheerlessness : feel or show melancholy or despondency : mope , brood
glooms at being kept in the hospital — John McCarten
all citizens had a tax increase … to gloom about — Mollie Panter-Downes
got sorrier and sorrier for myself, glooming on how things always went wrong somewhere — Gavin Casey
very wise in not glooming over what is inevitable — J.B.Cabell
2.
a. archaic : to be or become overcast or murky (as of the weather) : be or become dull, cloudy, dark, or threatening
b. : to be or become twilight : grow toward dark : be or become dusk
it was glooming fast in the thick timber — Irving Bacheller
3. : to loom up dimly or obscurely : appear indistinctly in or as if in a fading or uncertain light : appear darkly or dismally : come somberly into view
at the edge of the precipice the ancient castle gloomed
: appear dimly : glimmer
a citron color gloomed in her hair — W.B.Yeats
transitive verb
1. archaic : to cause to be melancholy : sadden
what sorrows gloomed that parting day — Oliver Goldsmith
such a mood as that, which lately gloomed your fancy — Alfred Tennyson
2. : to make dark, murky, or somber
already the evening shadows were glooming the forest — Ambrose Bierce
clouds gloomed the street — Raymond Lee
3. : to utter with melancholy, dejection, or despondency : say morosely
“I've tried about everything else,” gloomed the architect — Jay Franklin
II. noun
( -s )
1. chiefly Scotland : a sullen look : frown , scowl
2.
a. : partial or total darkness
the gloom of the night
difficult for the most practiced eye to pierce far into the gloom — J.L.Motley
: glimmering obscurity : dimness
the cool gloom of the cathedral
the light coming through the windows set high in the walls had darkened to the sudden gloom of the summer storm — Mary Deasy
: deep shadowiness or shadiness
resting for a moment in the quiet gloom of the forest
especially : a dismally depressing darkness or murkiness
a raw and detestable winter day and the gloom and noise of the huge town oppressed the soul — Leonard Bacon
b. : a partially or totally darkened place, spot, or region
in this Italian glare I pine for the glooms of London — Aldous Huxley
: a shadowy or shady place
within the green glooms of the shadowy oak — J.R.Lowell
3.
a. : a state of melancholy or depression : lowness of spirits : dejection , despondency
the results of the Rome meeting were rather inconclusive and discouraging as the delegates departed in gloom — S.B.Fay
b. : an appearance or atmosphere of melancholy and despondency
constant repinings at the dullness of everything around them threw a real gloom over their domestic circle — Jane Austen
4. : one who is depressingly melancholy
I'd have been a gloom in all that commencement gaiety — Mark Reed
: killjoy
a set of glooms called censors — H.C.Witwer
Synonyms: see sadness