'Dismal' definitions:
Definition of 'dismal'
From: WordNet
adjective
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]
Definition of 'Dismal'
From: GCIDE
- 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.] [1913 Webster]
- An ugly fiend more foul than dismal day. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- Full well the busy whisper, circling round, Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frowned. --Goldsmith. [1913 Webster]
- 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. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'dismal'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- acier,
- affecting,
- afflictive,
- affording no hope,
- apathetic,
- arid,
- ashen,
- ashy,
- barren,
- bitter,
- black,
- blah,
- blank,
- bleak,
- bloodless,
- blue,
- canescent,
- Cassandra-like,
- Cassandran,
- Cassandrian,
- 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,
- Quaker-colored,
- 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