Dismal
adj, noun ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A dreary swamp in eastern North Carolina or Virginia in the United States. US, dated, possibly
".[…] 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[…]"
- 1 Disastrous, calamitous.
- 2 Disappointingly inadequate.
"He received a dismal compensation."
- 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"
- 1 causing dejection wordnet
Example
More examples"The rain made the autumn day dismal."
Etymology
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”).
Related phrases
More for "dismal"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.