gloom Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a state of partial or total darkness
sombreness; somberness.
- he struck a match to dispel the gloom
noun a feeling of melancholy apprehension
gloominess; sombreness; somberness.
noun an atmosphere of depression and melancholy
gloominess; glumness.
- gloom pervaded the office

AS. gl&omac;m twilight, from the root of E. glow. See Glow, and cf. Glum, Gloam.

Partial or total darkness; thick shade; obscurity; as, the gloom of a forest, or of midnight.
A shady, gloomy, or dark place or grove.
Before a gloom of stubborn-shafted oaks. Tennyson .
Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits. Burke.
In gunpowder manufacture, the drying oven. Syn. -- Darkness; dimness; obscurity; heaviness; dullness; depression; melancholy; dejection; sadness. See Darkness.

imperfect & past participle Gloomed ; present participle & verbal noun Glooming

To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.
To become dark or dim; to be or appear dismal, gloomy, or sad; to come to the evening twilight.
The black gibbet glooms beside the way. Goldsmith.

[This weary day] . . . at last I see it gloom. Spenser.

To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.
A bow window . . . gloomed with limes. Walpole.

A black yew gloomed the stagnant air. Tennyson.
To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
Such a mood as that which lately gloomed Your fancy. Tennison.

What sorrows gloomed that parting day. Goldsmith.