sloom

plural slooms · alternative sloum

1. A gentle sleep; slumber.

present singular third person slooms · participle present slooming · participle past sloomed · past sloomed · alternative sloum · alternative sleam

1. ScotlandTo sleep lightly, to doze, to nod; to be half-asleep.

   He lay slooming half-asleep, half-awake, thinking about Tuesday afternoon.

   2001, Gemma O'Connor, Walking on Water, Berkley Publishing Group (2003), page 205

   4 more examples

   The squire sloomed and slept in his chair; and finally, after a cup of tea, went to bed.

   1886, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Squire of Sandal-Side A Pastoral Romance

   To his castle’s portal, / At the morning gloaming, / Bore they all the mortal / From the battle’s foaming, / Of the white bannered warrior knight, / Cold in his armor slooming!

   a. 1853, Jane Ermina Locke, “Elia”, in The Recalled: In Voices of the Past, and Poems of the Ideal, James Munroe and Company, published 1854, page 193

   Then the doctor was slooming and nodding, and waking up and saying a word or two, and relapsing again into semi-unconsciousness.

   1900, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Maid of Maiden lane, Dodd, Mead and Company, page 181

   The afternoon sun painted amber patterns on the Turkey red hearthrug: the only splash of colour in the dun room. Potter sloomed in the arms of the chair.

   1936, Esmond Quinterley, Ushering Interlude, The Fortune Press, page 66

2. To soften or rot with damp. (of plants or soil)

   […] no other spot over their whole pastured offered as much verdure at this time as these seemingly sloomed places.

   1824 August, “Remarks on Captian Napier's Essay on Store-Farming”, in The Farmer’s Magazine, Volume XXV, Archibald Constable and Company (publishers), page 329

   2 more examples

   He adds, that one hundred bolls, or fifty quarters of wheat may be thrashed in a day of eight hours, unless the grain has been sloomed or mildewed; […]

   a. 1807, unidentified young farmer, letter to his father, printed in Edinburgh Farmers’ Magazine 1807, reprinted in The Farmer’s Register, Volume 7, Number 9 (1839 September 30), page 540

   It must be explained, however, that in the latter case the “slooming” of the crop had an injurious effect on its yield; […]

   c. 1854, Alexander J. Main, “Experiments with Special Manures”, in Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, W. Blackwood & Sons (1855), page 17