gloom meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

gloom

noun

UK /ɡluːm/ · US /ɡlum/

Etymology From Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English glōm (“gloaming, twilight, darkness”), from Proto-West Germanic *glōm, from Proto-Germanic *glōmaz (“gleam, shimmer, sheen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). The English word is cognate with Norwegian glom (“transparent membrane”), Scots gloam (“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).

Usually Darkness, dimness, or obscurity.

the gloom of a forest, or of midnight
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 the gloom, I could make out nothing to show me where to work.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

1 more example

On December 13, Maritime-liveried 66051 powers out of the early morning gloom with three repatriated Class 66s, on the 0809 Dollands Moor Sidings-Scunthorpe Redbourne Siding.2022 January 12, “News in pictures: Repatriated '66s' return home”, in RAIL, number 948, page 20:

Usually A depressing, despondent, or melancholic atmosphere.

A sudden little river crossed my path / As unexpected as a serpent comes. / No sluggish tide congenial to the glooms— / 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.1855, Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza 19, page 142:
Although it's always crowded You still can find some room For broken-hearted lovers To cry there in their gloom.1956, “Heartbreak Hotel”, Mae Boren Axton, Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley:

Usually Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.

A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits.1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents:

Usually A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.

Derived terms: begloom, doom and gloom, engloom, gloomcore, gloomful, gloomies, gloomily, gloomish, gloomleader, gloomless, gloomsome, gloomster, gloomth, gloomward, gloomy, June gloom, outgloom, overgloom, semigloom, undergloom, ungloomed
Related terms: gloam

gloom

verb

To be dark or gloomy.

Here, while the proud their long drawn pomps diſplay, / There the black gibbet glooms beſide the way.1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W[illiam] Griffin, […], →OCLC, page 17:
Around all the dark forest gloomed.1891, Charles Egbert Craddock [pseudonym; Mary Noailles Murfree], In the "Stranger People's" Country, New York: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 323:

To look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.

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.1882, W. Marshall, Strange Chapman: A North of England Story, volume 2, London: Hurst and Blackett, →OCLC, page 170:
Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something.a. 1930, D. H. Lawrence, The Lovely Lady:

2 more examples

"Is Maggie then astonishing too?"—and he gloomed out of his window.1904 November 10, Henry James, chapter XVI, in The Golden Bowl, volume I, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, 1st book (The Prince), 3rd part, page 283:
He gloomed for some moments above the round-topped table[.]1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 85:

To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.

A black yew gloom'd the stagnant air.1855, Alfred Tennyson, “The Letters”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 115:

To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.

For see you not, dear love, / Such a mood as that, which lately gloom'd / Your fancy when you saw me following you, / Must make me fear still more you are not mine, […]1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Vivien”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 110:
Good Heaven! What ſorrows gloom'd that parting day, / That called them from their native walks away; […]1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W[illiam] Griffin, […], →OCLC, page 20:

To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.