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dismal

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dismal


  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  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. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  dismal 
  adj  1:  depressing  in  character  or  appearance;  "drove  through  dingy 
  streets";  "the  dismal  prison  twilight"-  Charles 
  Dickens;  "drab  old  buildings";  "a  dreary  mining  town"; 
  "gloomy  tenements";  "sorry  routine  that  follows  on  the 
  heels  of  death"-  B.A.Williams  [syn:  {dingy},  {drab},  {drear}, 
  {dreary},  {gloomy},  {sorry}] 
  2:  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},  {depressing},  {disconsolate},  {dispiriting}, 
  {gloomy},  {grim}] 




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