First Known Use: 1547
Dictionary
glum
adjective \ˈgləm\
: sad or depressed
glum·merglum·mest
Full Definition of GLUM
1
: broodingly morose <became glum when they heard the news>
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Origin of GLUM
akin to Middle English gloumen to gloom
Related to GLUM
- Synonyms
- black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dire, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, gloomy, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, morbid, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, solemn, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched
Synonym Discussion of GLUM
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>.
GLUM Defined for Kids
glum
adjective \ˈgləm\
glum·merglum·mest
Definition of GLUM for Kids
: gloomy and sad <a glum expression> <"You probably don't ever get in trouble anyway," said Bean, feeling glum. "I'm always in trouble." — Annie Barrows, Ivy & Bean>
— glum·ly adverb
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