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Dismal - 5 dictionary results
dis⋅mal
[diz-muh
l] 
–adjective
| 1. | causing gloom or dejection; gloomy; dreary; cheerless; melancholy: dismal weather. |
| 2. | characterized by ineptness or lack of skill, competence, effectiveness, imagination, or interest; pitiful: Our team played a dismal game. |
| 3. | Obsolete.
|
–noun
| 4. | Southern U.S. a tract of swampy land, usually along the coast. |
Origin:
1275–1325; ME dismale unlucky time, dismol day one of two days in each month considered unlucky (hence later taken as adj.) < AF dis mal < ML diēs malī lit., evil days
1275–1325; ME dismale unlucky time, dismol day one of two days in each month considered unlucky (hence later taken as adj.) < AF dis mal < ML diēs malī lit., evil days
Related forms:
dis⋅mal⋅ly, adverb
dis⋅mal⋅ness, dis⋅mal⋅i⋅ty, noun
Synonyms:
2. hopeless, abysmal, dreadful.
2. hopeless, abysmal, dreadful.
Antonyms:
1. cheerful; gay.
1. cheerful; gay.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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|
Link To Dismal
| dis·mal (dĭz'məl) adj.
[Middle English, unlucky days, unlucky, from Anglo-Norman, unlucky days, from Medieval Latin diēs malī : Latin diēs, pl. of diēs, day; see dyeu- in Indo-European roots + Latin malī, pl. of malus, evil; see mel-3 in Indo-European roots.] dis'mal·ly adv., dis'mal·ness n. |
| po·co·sin (pə-kō'sĭn) n. Chiefly South Atlantic U.S. A swamp in an upland coastal region. Also called regionally dismal. [Possibly of Virginia Algonquian origin.] In coastal Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the Carolinas, a swamp or marsh can be called a pocosin or a dismal, the second term illustrated in the name of the Dismal Swamp on the border of North Carolina and Virginia. The word pocosin possibly comes from Virginia Algonquian. The early settlers used pocosin as a designation for low swampy ground, especially a wooded swamp. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : Dismal
Spanish:
deprimente, triste, desalentador, abatido,
German:
düster,
Japanese:
陰うつな
dismal
c.1400, from Anglo-Fr. dismal, from O.Fr. (li) dis mals "(the) bad days," from M.L. dies mali "evil or unlucky days" (also called dies Ægyptiaci), from L. dies "days" (see diurnal) + mali, pl. of malus "bad" (see mal-). Through the Middle Ages, calendars marked two days of each month as unlucky, supposedly based on the ancient calculations of Egyptian astrologers. Modern sense of "gloomy, dreary" first recorded in Eng. 1593 in reference to sounds.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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