gloom

plural glooms

1. uncountableusuallyDarkness, dimness, or obscurity.

   the gloom of a forest, or of midnight

   2 more examples

   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.

   [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC

   On December 13, Maritime-liveried 66051 powers out of the early morning gloom with three repatriated Class 66s, on the 0809 Dollands Moor Sidings-Scunthorpe Redbourne Siding.

   2022 January 12, “News in pictures: Repatriated '66s' return home”, in RAIL, number 948, page 20

2. uncountableusuallyA depressing, despondent, or melancholic atmosphere.

   Although it's always crowded You still can find some room For broken-hearted lovers To cry there in their gloom.

   1956, “Heartbreak Hotel”, Mae Boren Axton, Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley

   1 more example

   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.

   1855, Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza 19, page 142

   Synonyms: An atmosphere of gloom descended on the assembled crowd.

3. uncountableusuallyCloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.

   A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits.

   1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents

4. uncountableusuallyA drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.

present singular third person glooms · participle present glooming · participle past gloomed · past gloomed

1. intransitiveTo be dark or gloomy.

   Around all the dark forest gloomed.

   1891, Charles Egbert Craddock [pseudonym; Mary Noailles Murfree], In the "Stranger People's" Country, New York: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 323

   1 more example

   Here, while the proud their long drawn pomps diſplay, / There the black gibbet glooms beſide the way.

   1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W[illiam] Griffin, […], →OCLC, page 17

2. intransitiveTo look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.

   He gloomed for some moments above the round-topped table[.]

   1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 85

   3 more examples

   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.

   1882, W. Marshall, Strange Chapman: A North of England Story, volume 2, London: Hurst and Blackett, →OCLC, page 170

   Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something.

   a. 1930, D. H. Lawrence, The Lovely Lady

   "Is Maggie then astonishing too?"—and he gloomed out of his window.

   1904 November 10, Henry James, chapter XVI, in The Golden Bowl, volume I, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, 1st book (The Prince), 3rd part, page 283

   Synonyms: grieve, mourn, aggrieve, besorrow, condole, darken, engrieve, erme

3. transitiveTo render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.

   A black yew gloom'd the stagnant air.

   1855, Alfred Tennyson, “The Letters”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 115

4. transitiveTo fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.

   Good Heaven! What ſorrows gloom'd that parting day, / That called them from their native walks away; […]

   1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W[illiam] Griffin, […], →OCLC, page 20

   1 more example

   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, […]

   1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Vivien”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 110

5. To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.