What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Dismal vs Forbidding - What's the difference?

dismal | forbidding | Related terms |

Dismal is a related term of forbidding.


As adjectives the difference between dismal and forbidding

is that dismal is disappointingly inadequate while forbidding is highly unpleasant or disagreeable.

As a verb forbidding is

.

As a noun forbidding is

the act by which something is forbidden; a prohibition.

dismal

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Disappointingly inadequate.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Liverpool 0-1 West Brom , passage=Liverpool's efforts thereafter had an air of desperation as their dismal 2012 league form continued.}}
  • Gloomy and bleak.
  • Depressing.
  • *, chapter=12
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all. It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.}}

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "dismal" is often applied: failure, performance, state, record, place, result, scene, season, year, economy, future, fate, weather, news, condition, history.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * dismal science

    forbidding

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • highly unpleasant or disagreeable
  • threatening or menacing

    • Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act by which something is forbidden; a prohibition.
  • * William Shakespeare
    • But all these poor forbiddings could not stay him.