All 8 Uses of
somber
in
Jane Eyre
- We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.†
p. 9.2sombre = serious and without humor or fun -- perhaps sadunconventional spelling: This is a British spelling. Americans use somber.
- I would fain exercise some better faculty than that of fierce speaking; fain find nourishment for some less fiendish feeling than that of sombre indignation.†
p. 46.2
- I drew them large; I shaped them well: the eyelashes I traced long and sombre; the irids lustrous and large.†
p. 269.3 *
- I gazed on it with gloom and pain: nothing soft, nothing sweet, nothing pitying, or hopeful, or subduing did it inspire; only a grating anguish for HER woes — not MY loss — and a sombre tearless dismay at the fearfulness of death in such a form.†
p. 276.9
- And now, no more sombre thoughts: chase dull care away, Janet.†
p. 329.5
- All the valley at my right hand was full of pasture-fields, and cornfields, and wood; and a glittering stream ran zig-zag through the varied shades of green, the mellowing grain, the sombre woodland, the clear and sunny lea.†
p. 374.8
- Two young, graceful women — ladies in every point — sat, one in a low rocking-chair, the other on a lower stool; both wore deep mourning of crape and bombazeen, which sombre garb singularly set off very fair necks and faces: a large old pointer dog rested its massive head on the knee of one girl — in the lap of the other was cushioned a black cat.†
p. 381.9
- Why are you so very shy, and so very sombre?†
p. 420.5
Definitions:
-
(1)
(somber as in: a somber mood) serious (without cheer or lightheartedness); or sad
-
(2)
(somber as in: somber colors) lacking brightness or color -- perhaps gloomy