gloom

Etymology

From Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English glōm (“gloaming, twilight, darkness”), from Proto-West Germanic *glōm, from Proto-Germanic *glōmaz (“gleam, shimmer, sheen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). The English word is cognate with Norwegian glom (“transparent membrane”), Scots gloam (“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).

noun

1. Darkness, dimness, or obscurity.
   the gloom of a forest, or of midnight
   On December 13, Maritime-liveried 66051 powers out of the early morning gloom with three repatriated Class 66s, on the 0809 Dollands Moor Sidings-Scunthorpe Redbourne Siding. January 12 2022, “News in pictures: Repatriated '66s' return home”, in RAIL, number 948, page 20
2. A depressing, despondent, or melancholic atmosphere.
   Although it's always crowded You still can find some room For broken-hearted lovers To cry there in their gloom. 1956, “Heartbreak Hotel”, Mae Boren Axton, Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley
3. Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
   A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits. 1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents
4. A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.

verb

1. (intransitive) To be dark or gloomy.
   Around all the dark forest gloomed. 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 189
2. (intransitive) To look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.
   Her face gathers, furrows, glooms; arching eyebrows wrinkle into horizontals, and a tinge of bitterness unsmooths the cheek and robs the lip of sweetened grace. She is evidently perturbed. 1882, W. Marshall, Strange Chapman, volume 2, page 170
   Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something. a. 1930, D. H. Lawrence, The Lovely Lady
3. (transitive) To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.
4. (transitive) To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
5. To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.