Adjacent Words

Dismal definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DISMAL, a. s as z. [I am not satisfied with the etymologies of this word which I have seen. ]
1. Dark; gloomy; as a dismal shade.
2. Sorrowful; dire; horrid; melancholy; calamitous; unfortunate; as a dismal accident; dismal effects.
3. Frightful; horrible; as a dismal scream.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: causing dejection; "a blue day"; "the dark days of the war"; "a week of rainy depressing weather"; "a disconsolate winter landscape"; "the first dismal dispiriting days of November"; "a dark gloomy day"; "grim rainy weather" [syn: blue, dark, dingy, disconsolate, dismal, gloomy, grim, sorry, drab, drear, dreary]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from dismal, noun, days marked as unlucky in medieval calendars, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin dies mali, literally, evil days Date: 15th century 1. obsolete disastrous, dreadful 2. showing or causing gloom or depression 3. lacking merit ; particularly bad <a dismal performance> • dismally adverb • dismalness noun Synonyms: dismal, dreary, bleak, gloomy, cheerless, desolate mean devoid of cheer or comfort. dismal indicates extreme and utterly depressing gloominess <dismal weather>. dreary often interchangeable with dismal, emphasizes discouragement resulting from sustained dullness or futility <a dreary job>. bleak suggests chill, dull, and barren characteristics that utterly dishearten <the bleak years of the depression>. gloomy often suggests lack of hope or promise <gloomy war news>. cheerless stresses absence of anything cheering <a drab and cheerless office>. desolate adds an element of utter remoteness or lack of human contact to any already disheartening aspect <a desolate outpost>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

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

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dismal Dis"mal, a. [Formerly a noun; e. g., ``I trow it was in the dismalle.'' Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. d[^i]me, tithe, the phrase dismal day properly meaning, the day when tithes must be paid. See Dime.] 1. Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Obs.] An ugly fiend more foul than dismal day. --Spenser. 2. Gloomy to the eye or ear; sorrowful and depressing to the feelings; foreboding; cheerless; dull; dreary; as, a dismal outlook; dismal stories; a dismal place. Full well the busy whisper, circling round, Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frowned. --Goldsmith. A dismal description of an English November. --Southey. Syn: Dreary; lonesome; gloomy; dark; ominous; ill-boding; fatal; doleful; lugubrious; funereal; dolorous; calamitous; sorrowful; sad; joyless; melancholy; unfortunate; unhappy.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Something that is dismal is bad in a sad or depressing way. It was a dismal failure. ADJ • dismally He failed dismally in his opening match. ADV 2. Something that is dismal is sad and depressing, especially in appearance. The main part of the hospital is pretty dismal but the children's ward is really lively. = dreary ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Cheerless, gloomy, dark, dull, dreary, lonesome. 2. Melancholy, mournful, sad, doleful, dolorous, sombre, lugubrious, funereal. 3. Horrid, horrible, terrible, dire, frightful.

Moby Thesaurus

Cassandra-like, Cassandran, Cassandrian, Quaker-colored, acier, affecting, afflictive, affording no hope, apathetic, arid, ashen, ashy, barren, bitter, black, blah, blank, bleak, bloodless, blue, canescent, characterless, cheerless, cinerary, cinereous, cinerous, cold, colorless, comfortless, cynical, dapple, dapple-gray, dappled, dappled-gray, dark, dead, defeatist, deplorable, depressing, depressive, despairing, desperate, despondent, dingy, dirgelike, discomforting, disconsolate, disheartening, dismaying, distressful, distressing, doleful, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dove-colored, dove-gray, downbeat, draggy, drear, drearisome, dreary, dry, dryasdust, dull, dusty, effete, elephantine, empty, epitaphic, etiolated, exequial, fade, feral, flat, forlorn, funebrial, funebrious, funebrous, funeral, funerary, funereal, glaucescent, glaucous, gloomy, grave, gray, gray-black, gray-brown, gray-colored, gray-drab, gray-green, gray-spotted, gray-toned, gray-white, grayed, grayish, grievous, grim, griseous, grizzle, grizzled, grizzly, heavy, ho-hum, hollow, hopeless, in despair, inane, inexcitable, insipid, iron-gray, jejune, joyless, lamentable, lead-gray, leaden, lifeless, livid, low-spirited, lowering, lugubrious, melancholy, miserable, morose, mortuary, mournful, mouse-colored, mouse-gray, mousy, moving, necrological, negative, negativistic, nihilistic, obituary, obsequial, oppressive, painful, pale, pallid, pathetic, pearl, pearl-gray, pearly, pedestrian, pessimist, pessimistic, piteous, pitiable, plodding, poignant, pointless, poky, ponderous, regrettable, rueful, sad, saddening, saturnine, sepulchral, sharp, silver, silver-gray, silvered, silvery, slate-colored, slaty, slow, smoke-gray, smoky, sober, solemn, somber, sombrous, sore, sorrowful, spiritless, steel-gray, steely, sterile, stiff, stodgy, stone-colored, stuffy, superficial, tasteless, taupe, tedious, touching, triste, uncheerful, uncomfortable, unhappy, unhopeful, unlively, vapid, weariful, wearisome, weary, without hope, woebegone, woeful, wooden, wretched