dismal

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Disappointingly inadequate.

   He received a dismal compensation.

2. 2
   adj

   Causing despair; gloomy and bleak.

   The storm made for a dismal weekend

3. 3
   adj

   Depressing, dreary, cheerless.

   She was lost in dismal thoughts of despair

4. 4
   noun

   A dreary swamp in eastern North Carolina or Virginia in the United States.

   .[…] 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[…]

5. 5
   adj

   causing dejection

6. 6
   adj

   Disastrous, calamitous.

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”).