From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgloomgloom /ɡluːm/ ●○○ noun [singular, uncountable] 1 literaryDARK almost complete darkness He peered into the gathering (=increasing) gloom.2 SAD/UNHAPPYa feeling of great sadness and lack of hope a time of high unemployment and economic gloom → doom and gloom at doom2COLLOCATIONS – Meaning 2: a feeling of great sadness and lack of hopeverbsbe filled with gloomShe was filled with gloom as she looked around the place.be sunk in gloom (=feel very sad and hopeless)She made several attempts at conversation but the boy was sunk in gloom.cast (a) gloom over something (=make people feel sad)His ill health had cast a gloom over the Christmas holidays.dispel/lift the gloom (=make people feel less sad)Now for some good news to dispel the gloom.gloom deepens (=people feel more sad)The party's gloom deepened as the election results came in.gloom lifts (=people stop feeling sad)Germany's gloom lifted when Stallkamp scored a goal.phrasesdoom and gloom (=when there seems no hope)The picture is not all doom and gloom - some tourist areas are still drawing in the crowds.adjectiveseconomic gloomIt was a year of economic gloom for the car industry.deep gloomThere was deep gloom about the future.a general gloom (=when many people feel there is not much hope)Amid the general gloom, there are some positive signs.
Examples from the Corpus
gloom• She moved out of the sunlight that flooded in between the nettles and into the dank gloom of the main tunnel.• He couldn't read in the dim gloom of the warehouse.• There was a sense of gloom in the city after the team's loss.• The same sense of gloom and oppression.• Once, at lunch, Margarett complained about the gloom of her bedroom.• The bumblebees are still foraging from the chokecherry blossoms in the gloom.• A long-tailed, hawk-like bird emerged from the trees, dusky shape in the gloom.• Then the pines closed ranks again, their tall red trunks glowing softly in the gloom of the afternoon.• As my eyes accustomed to the gloom they began to make out details close by. 