gloom

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English

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Etymology

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FromMiddle English*gloom,*glom,fromOld Englishglōm(“gloaming, twilight, darkness”),fromProto-West Germanic*glōm,fromProto-Germanic*glōmaz(“gleam, shimmer, sheen”),fromProto-Indo-European*ǵʰley-(“to gleam, shimmer, glow”).The English word is cognate withNorwegianglom(“transparent membrane”),Scotsgloam(“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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gloom(usuallyuncountable,pluralglooms)

  1. Darkness,dimness,orobscurity.
    thegloomof a forest, or of midnight
    • [1898],J[ohn] Meade Falkner,Moonfleet,London; Toronto, Ont.:Jonathan Cape,published1934,→OCLC:
      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 thegloom,I could make out nothing to show me where to work.
    • 2022January 12, “News in pictures: Repatriated '66s' return home”, inRAIL,number948,page20:
      On December 13, Maritime-liveried 66051 powers out of the early morninggloomwith three repatriated Class 66s, on the 0809 Dollands Moor Sidings-Scunthorpe Redbourne Siding.
  2. Adepressing,despondent,ormelancholicatmosphere.
    • 1855,Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, inMen and Women[…],volume I, London:Chapman and Hall,[…],→OCLC,stanza 19,page142:
      A sudden little river crossed my path / As unexpected as a serpent comes. / No sluggish tide congenial to theglooms— / 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.
    • 1956,“Heartbreak Hotel”,Mae Boren Axton, Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley (lyrics), performed byElvis Presley:
      Although it's always crowded
      You still can find some room
      For broken-hearted lovers
      To cry there in theirgloom.
  3. Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
    • 1770,Edmund Burke,Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents:
      A sullengloomand furious disorder prevailed by fits.
  4. Adryingovenused ingunpowdermanufacture.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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gloom(third-person singular simple presentglooms,present participleglooming,simple past and past participlegloomed)

  1. (intransitive)To bedarkorgloomy.
    • 1770,[Oliver] Goldsmith,The Deserted Village, a Poem,London:[…]W[illiam]Griffin,[…],→OCLC,page17:
      Here, while the proud their long drawn pomps diſplay, / There the black gibbetgloomsbeſide the way.
    • 1891,Mary Noailles Murfree,In the "Stranger People's" Country,Nebraska, published2005,page189:
      Around all the dark forestgloomed.
  2. (intransitive)To look or feelsad,sullenordespondent.
    • 1882,W. Marshall,Strange Chapman,volume 2, page170:
      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.
    • a.1930,D. H. Lawrence,The Lovely Lady:
      Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to begloomingabout something.
    • 1904November 10, Henry James, chapter XVI, inThe Golden Bowl,volume I, New York, N.Y.:Charles Scribner’s Sons,→OCLC,book first (The Prince), part third,page283:
      "Is Maggie then astonishing too?" —and hegloomedout of his window.
    • 1930,Norman Lindsay,Redheap,Sydney, N.S.W.:Ure Smith,published1965,→OCLC,page85:
      Hegloomedfor some moments above the round-topped table[.]
  3. (transitive)To render gloomy or dark; toobscure;todarken.
  4. (transitive)To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
  5. To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; toglimmer.
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