dismal
causing gloom or dejection; gloomy; dreary; cheerless; melancholy: dismal weather.
characterized by ineptness or lack of skill, competence, effectiveness, imagination, or interest; pitiful: Our team played a dismal game.
Obsolete.
disastrous; calamitous.
unlucky; sinister.
Southern U.S. a tract of swampy land, usually along the coast.
Origin of dismal
1Other words for dismal
Opposites for dismal
Other words from dismal
- dis·mal·ly, adverb
- dis·mal·ness, dis·mal·i·ty, noun
Words Nearby dismal
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use dismal in a sentence
Jakub Vrana's dismal turnover in the offensive zone led to the rush the opposite way — and the eventual game-winner.
In the home of ‘The King,’ the Capitals get served with a second straight loss | Samantha Pell | February 5, 2021 | Washington Post“I suppose my larger intention was to add some light, levity and beauty to an otherwise dismal year,” she said.
It’s like a Little Free Library, but there’s art inside. People are flocking to it, tiny art in hand. | Cathy Free | January 19, 2021 | Washington PostThis apparent bet-hedging did not seem to go over well with investors, who were asked by Bakish to overlook the company’s dismal fourth-quarter earnings that included a net loss of $273 million.
Change the channel: How ViacomCBS is managing the transition from linear TV to streaming | Tim Peterson | January 5, 2021 | Digiday“We need cities to act with urgency so that we can start improving the very dismal housing supply we have now,” she said.
Encinitas Wants to Exempt Itself From New State Density Law | Kara Grant | December 11, 2020 | Voice of San DiegoWhile King County Metro received some federal aid for short-term survival, its prospects in the longer term are dismal, with the agency projecting more than $600 million in lost revenues through 2022.
COVID-19 Has Been 'Apocalyptic' for Public Transit. Will Congress Offer More Help? | Alejandro de la Garza | July 21, 2020 | Time
While it is sadly too late for Ms. Peña, there is hope beyond these dismal facts.
Elizabeth Peña and the Truth About Alcoholic Women | Gabrielle Glaser | October 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut there was still a paper to get out in Washington, and I went there late in the afternoon to tackle the dismal job.
The Stacks: H.L. Mencken on the 1904 Baltimore Fire | H.L. Mencken | October 4, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTGBM is a devastating diagnosis for a neurosurgeon to deliver to a patient and their family, one with a dismal outcome.
Why Men May Be More Likely to Get Deadly Brain Cancer | Dr. Anand Veeravagu, MD, Tej Azad | August 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIt sounds like a dismal new episode of the new 24: Live Another Day.
It’s Not Time to Worry About China’s Plague Just Yet | Kent Sepkowitz | July 23, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTRyan McGarry M.D., director of the documentary Code Black, addresses the dismal state of urgent care.
‘Code Black’: An M.D. on How to Fix Our Emergency Room Crisis | Ryan McGarry | June 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTI need not inquire whether his dismal behaviour was natural or assumed.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, v. 2(of 2) | Charles DickensAnd when he did leave the dismal scene of this last act of his miseries, it was like the spectre of the man who had entered it.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4 | Jane PorterMy railway life began on a drizzling dismal day in the early autumn.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland | Joseph TatlowThe light which discovered its dismal bounds to his solitary eyes, came from a small grated aperture in the vaulted roof.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4 | Jane PorterIt was still in the verge of possibility that his son might seek his father in that dismal chamber.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4 | Jane Porter
British Dictionary definitions for dismal
/ (ˈdɪzməl) /
causing gloom or depression
causing dismay or terror
of poor quality or a low standard; feeble
Origin of dismal
1Derived forms of dismal
- dismally, adverb
- dismalness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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