All 5 Uses

dismal
in
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
(Edited)

The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters.
p. 4.8 *

dismal = depressing or gloomy
What right have you to be dismal?
p. 5.8

dismal = depressed and feeling hopeless
It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar.
p. 15.3

dismal = gloomy
At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise, that Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save himself from falling in a swoon.
p. 22.2

dismal = gloomy and causing loss of hope
Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or so from shore, on which the waters chafed and dashed, the wild year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse.
p. 79.3

dismal = gloomy

Definitions:

(1) (dismal)
of terrible quality or depressing; or dark and dreary (as when bad weather blocks the sun or when it is drizzly)
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)