gloomy

dismal, dreary, bleak, gloomy, cheerless, desolate mean devoid of cheer or comfort. dismal indicates extreme and utterly depressing gloominess.

• • dismal weather

dreary, often interchangeable with dismal, emphasizes discouragement resulting from sustained dullness or futility.

• • a dreary job

bleak suggests chill, dull, and barren characteristics that utterly dishearten.

• • the bleak years of the depression

gloomy often suggests lack of hope or promise.

• • gloomy war news

cheerless stresses absence of anything cheering.

• • a drab and cheerless office

desolate adds an element of utter remoteness or lack of human contact to any already disheartening aspect.

• • a desolate outpost

sullen, glum, morose, surly, sulky, crabbed, saturnine, gloomy mean showing a forbidding or disagreeable mood. sullen implies a silent ill humor and a refusal to be sociable.

• • remained sullen amid the festivities

glum suggests a silent dispiritedness.

• • a glum candidate left to ponder a stunning defeat

morose adds to glum an element of bitterness or misanthropy.

• • morose job seekers who are inured to rejection

surly implies gruffness and sullenness of speech or manner.

• • a typical surly teenager

sulky suggests childish resentment expressed in peevish sullenness.

• • grew sulky after every spat

crabbed applies to a forbidding morose harshness of manner.

• • the school's notoriously crabbed headmaster

saturnine describes a heavy forbidding aspect or suggests a bitter disposition.

• • a saturnine cynic always finding fault

gloomy implies a depression in mood making for seeming sullenness or glumness.

• • a gloomy mood ushered in by bad news