Sample Sentences for
dismal
(editor-reviewed)

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  • •
    When she graduated from college the job market was dismal.
    dismal = terrible or depressing
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    It is dismal weather.
    dismal = terrible
  • •
    It was a dismal play with terrible acting.
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
  • •
    She's reporting a dismal earnings outlook for the industry.
    dismal = terrible or depressing
  • •
    Cautiously he reaches his hand to his behind and looks at me dismally.  (source)
    dismally = in a depressed manner
  • •
    I had no eye, ear, or interest for anything else—that is, for usual, second-order, oatmeal, mere-phenomenal, snarled-shoelace-carfare-laundry-ticket plainness, unspecified dismalness, unknown captivities; the life of despair-harness, or the life of organization-habits which is meant to supplant accidents with calm abiding.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
  • •
    Since Tom's harassed conscience had managed to drive him to the lawyer's house by night and wring a dread tale from lips that had been sealed with the dismalest and most formidable of oaths, Huck's confidence in the human race was well-nigh obliterated.†  (source)
  • •
    That, of course, is a fairly dismal prospect.  (source)
    dismal = depressing
  • •
    The washing-up was so dismally real that Bilbo was forced to believe the party of the night before had not been part of his bad dreams, as he had rather hoped.  (source)
    dismally = depressingly
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    It was a chill and lowering morning, and a light snow which had fallen during the night whitened the great empty space and added to the general dismalness of its aspect.†  (source)
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    This face owes to the sexton his dismalest fee, An unceasing death-bell tolls there.†  (source)
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    In the dismal weather, it would have been difficult with both hands, but with just the one, it was impossible.  (source)
    dismal = terrible (wet and overcast)
  • •
    Everything was dismally still.  (source)
    dismally = depressingly
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