Wiktionary

dismal

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English dismal, dismale, from Anglo-Norman dismal, from Old French (li) dis mals (“(the) bad days”), from Medieval Latin diēs malī (“bad days”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈdɪzməl/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪzməl

Adjective

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dismal (comparative more dismal, superlative most dismal)

  1. Disastrous, calamitous.
  2. Disappointingly inadequate.
    He received a dismal compensation.
    • 2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport:
      Liverpool's efforts thereafter had an air of desperation as their dismal 2012 league form continued.
  3. Causing despair; gloomy and bleak.
    The storm made for a dismal weekend
  4. Depressing, dreary, cheerless.
    She was lost in dismal thoughts of despair
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all. It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Collocations

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with nouns
  • dismal failure
  • dismal performance
  • dismal state
  • dismal record
  • dismal place
  • dismal result
  • dismal scene
  • dismal season
  • dismal year
  • dismal economy
  • dismal future
  • dismal fate
  • dismal weather
  • dismal news
  • dismal condition
  • dismal history

Translations

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Noun

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dismal (plural dismals)

  1. (US, especially North Carolina, possibly dated) A dreary swamp in eastern North Carolina or Virginia in the United States.
    • 1908, Charles Lee Coon, The Beginnings of Public Education in North Carolina: A Documentary History, 1790-1840, page 949:
      . […] the proprietors of all the great unimproved tracts of Swamp lands will form themselves into Drainage Companies, by which method alone can we ever hope to witness the complete reclamation of the dismals of the seaboard. No reasonable doubt can be entertained that the clearing and draining of the lands will produce their usual effects in ameliorating the climate and that the tidal portions of No. Caro- lina may thus […]
    • 2020 May 1, Hudson, Berman, Our Good Earth: A Natural History of Soil, Algora Publishing, →ISBN, page 167:
      The term "Dismal" requires some clarification. At one time, all large swamps in eastern North Carolina were commonly referred to as "dismals," probably because they were so gloomy, dreary, and dark, and there are a lot of swamps or "dismals" in eastern North Carolina.

See also

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Anagrams

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