dismal

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“
Three times, -- first in the Wallenstein Mecklenburg period, while fire and sword were the weapons, and again, twice over, in the ultimate stages of the struggle, when starvation had become the method -- Brandenburg fell to be the principal theatre of conflict, where all forms of the dismal were at their height.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. adjective Causing gloom or depression; dreary: dismal weather; took a dismal view of the economy.
  2. adjective Characterized by ineptitude, dullness, or a lack of merit: a dismal book; a dismal performance on the cello.
  3. adjective Obsolete Dreadful; disastrous.
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Examples (50)

  • Wallenstein Mecklenburg period, while fire and sword were the weapons, and again, twice over, in the ultimate stages of the struggle, when starvation had become the method--Brandenburg fell to be the principal theatre of conflict, where all forms of the dismal were at their height. —  History of Friedrich II of Prussia
  • He had the lead in what she called a dismal Russian play No doubt it was The Lower Depths, Gorky's best play and the only one that would be playing in the U.S. at that time Is that so?' —  THE CAT WHO WENT BANANAS
  • The monthly unemployment report due out Friday likely will be dismal, and new jobless claims reported Thursday were worse than expected. —  No Stories found
  • The company announced Tuesday that its third fiscal quarter will be dismal, as had been expected. —  CNET News.com
  • Ring in the new year with some thing dismal, a review of Bloody New Year —  Blogger News Network
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

dreary ·  dreadful ·  mournful ·  bleak ·  dim ·  ghastly ·  endless ·  unpleasant
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. 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.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also dismall, diesmall, dismold, dysmel, dysemol; from Middle English dismal, dismall, dismale, disemal, dysmall, found first as a noun in the phrase “in the dismal” (see quot. under II., 1), of which the orig. meaning is not certain, but which prob. stands for “in the dismal days or time,” the word being most frequent in the phrase dismal day or dismal days (see quots. under I.). The origin and meaning of the word have been much debated. It was certainly borrowed, and prob. from the Old French From its lack of a recognized literal meaning in English, it must have been borrowed in a figurative sense. “It is just possible that the original sense of in the dismal [days or time] was in tithing time; with reference to the cruel extortion practiced by feudal lords, who exacted tenths from their vassals even more peremptorily than tithes were demanded for the church.” (Skeat.) This view, which is prob. correct, is based upon what appears to be phonetically the only possible origin of Middle English dismal, namely, from Old French *dismal, F. *dîmal (vernacular form of decimal, French décimal) = Spanish diezmal = Portuguese dizimal, Spanish Portuguese also decimal = English decimal, from Middle Latin decimalis, of a tenth, of tithes, from Latin decimus, tenth, Middle Latin fem, decima, a tenth, a tithe, later Old French disme, French díme, Middle English disme, English dime, a tithe, tenth: see decimal and dime. The notion of official extortion appears further in the related Old French dismer, diesmer, decimate, exact tithes, hence despoil (= Spanish diezmar = Portuguese dizimar, pay tithes, decimate: see decimate), and in escheat, cheat, q. v.
  2. from dismal, adjective
 

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/ˈdɪzməl/
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