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Misery vs Gloom - What's the difference?

misery | gloom |

As nouns the difference between misery and gloom

is that misery is great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe while gloom is darkness, dimness or obscurity.

As a verb gloom is

to be dark or gloomy.

misery

English

Noun

(miseries)
  • Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe.
    • Ever since his wife left him you can see the misery on his face .
  • Cause of misery; calamity; misfortune.
  • (Extreme) poverty.
  • Greed; avarice.

    • Synonyms

    * see

    Derived terms

    * put out of one's misery

    Related terms

    * commiserate * miser * miserable

    gloom

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • Darkness, dimness or obscurity.
    • the gloom of a forest, or of midnight
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
    • Here was a surprise, and a sad one for me, for I perceived that I had slept away a day, and that the sun was setting for another night. And yet it mattered little, for night or daytime there was no light to help me in this horrible place; and though my eyes had grown accustomed to the gloom , I could make out nothing to show me where to work.
  • A melancholy, depressing or despondent atmosphere.
  • Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
  • * Burke
    • A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits.
  • A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.

    • Derived terms

    * doom and gloom * gloomily * (l) (humorous) * gloomy

    Related terms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be dark or gloomy.
  • * Goldsmith
    • The black gibbet glooms beside the way.
  • * 1891 , Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 189:
    • Around all the dark forest gloomed .
  • to look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.
  • * D. H. Lawrence
    • Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something.
  • To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.
  • * Walpole
    • A bow window gloomed with limes.
  • * Tennyson
    • A black yew gloomed the stagnant air.
  • To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
  • * Tennyson
    • Such a mood as that which lately gloomed your fancy.
  • * Goldsmith
    • What sorrows gloomed that parting day.
  • To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.

    • Quotations

    * (English Citations of "gloom")