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. dime, 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 1913.

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