Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Affected with or subject to melancholy.
- adj. Of or relating to melancholia.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Affected with melancholy; gloomy; hypochondriac.
- Produced by melancholy; expressive or suggestive of melancholy; somber; gloomy; mournful: as, melancholic strains.
- Producing melancholy; unfortunate; causing sorrow.
- n. One who is affected with mental gloom; a hypochondriac; in pathology, one who suffers from melancholia; a melancholiac.
- n. A gloomy state of mind.
Wiktionary
- adj. Filled with or affected by melancholy—great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Given to melancholy; depressed; melancholy; dejected; unhappy.
- n. One affected with a gloomy state of mind.
- n. A gloomy state of mind; melancholy.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone subject to melancholia
- adj. characterized by or causing or expressing sadness
Examples
“Whether we identify as melancholic, or a classic Meyers-Briggs Introvert-Sensing-Thinking-Judging, or excuse our disheveled bedroom as a sign of our creativity, we take comfort in classifying our personalities, even as we insist on our individuality.”
“I will go out on a limb and suggest a certain melancholic mood perchance?”
“The melancholic is the person whose mum and dad made it impossible for him to maintain the illusion that normally keeps this awareness at bay.”
“Many great artists — and not only they — were described as melancholic, among them”
“Rembrandt and Velázquez — was ever described as melancholic and, indeed, showed any traces of the affliction.”
“This temperament the Elizabethans would have called melancholic; and Hamlet seems to be an example of it, as Lear is of a temperament mixedly choleric and sanguine.”
Shakespearean Tragedy Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth
“But when I am melancholic, that is how I like to play.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Speaking of Simon, Ritter recalls the melancholic side of that legendary songwriter in the epic "Another New World," as well as his perky side in "Lark.”
“All in all there are also glimpses especially in the Piano Quartet of a subtle lyrical and romantic aura that produces some ethereal sounds that recall melancholic and mellow moods.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘melancholic’.
mkb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_temperaments#Melancholic May 13, 2008