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7 results for: dismal
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dis·mal 
Audio Help [diz-muhl] Pronunciation Key
—Related forms
Audio Help [diz-muhl] Pronunciation Key –adjective
–noun
| 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.
|
| 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 diés malī lit., evil days]
] —Related forms
dis·mal·ly, adverb
dis·mal·ness, dis·mal·i·ty, noun
—Synonyms 2. hopeless, abysmal, dreadful.
—Antonyms 1. cheerful; gay.
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
dismal
To learn more about dismal visit Britannica.com
| © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
| dis·mal
Audio Help (dĭz'məl) Pronunciation Key
adj.
n. Chiefly South Atlantic U.S. See pocosin. See Regional Note at pocosin. [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. |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
| po·co·sin
Audio Help (pə-kō'sĭn) Pronunciation Key
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 © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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 |
| dismal | |
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" |
| WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. |
dismal [ˈdizməl] adjective
gloomy
Example: dismal news; Don't look so dismal!
Example: dismal news; Don't look so dismal!
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| Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary (Beta Version), © 2000-2006 K Dictionaries Ltd. |
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