adj.1 causing or showing gloom; miserable.
2 dreary or sombre (dismal brown walls).
3 colloq. feeble or inept (a dismal performance).
Phrases and idioms:
the dismals colloq. melancholy. the dismal science joc. economics.
Derivatives:
dismally adv. dismalness n.
Etymology: orig. noun unlucky days: ME f. AF dis mal f. med.L dies mali two days in each month held to be unpropitious