[a. F. sombre, of uncertain origin: cf. Sp. and Pg. sombrio, f. sombra shade. See also SOMBROUS a.]
A. adj. 1. Of inanimate natural objects and their attributes: Characterized by the presence of gloom or shadow; depressingly dark, dusky or obscure.
1760. H. Walpole, Lett. (1845), IV. 85. Painted ceilings, inlaid floors, and unpainted wainscots make every room sombre.
1777. W. Dalrymple, Trav. Sp. & Port., cxxxii. This city … had a sombre and poor appearance.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 184. This coast … dark, gloomy, and silent;—a savage sombre air spread over the whole.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xliii. The first shoot … of the yet unbroken stream, and the deep and sombre abyss into which it was emptied.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, xv. § 674. The sombre skies and changeable weather of our latitudes.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, I. vi. 147. The dining-room was sombre and substantial.
2. Of persons, their appearance, etc.: Gloomy, lowering, dark and sullen or dejected.
a. 1767. Grainger, Ode Solitude, 52. Late in Hagley you were seen, With blood-shed eyes, and sombre mien.
1823. Byron, Island, III. vi. Till lifting up again his sombre eye, It glanced on Torquil.
1865. Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, vi. 75. The man … was a sombre ill-looking fellow.
b. Of thoughts, feelings, etc.: Melancholy, dismal, darksome.
1821. Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Ghost Fadon, xxii. All Remain’d in sombre mood.
1832. G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 390. The entire shore is lined with dilapidated edifices, which would, under other circumstances, have awakened sombre reflections.
1858. Miss Mary Rankin, Daughter of Affliction, iii. 216. I lifted my languid eye in hopes that it might rest on some object, that might serve to while this somber mood away.
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., xii. 297. No doubt it cast a gleam of sombre hope upon his confinement.
3. Conveying gloomy ideas or suggestions.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ., Hotel at Paris. Beshrew the sombre pencil! said I vauntingly.
a. 1854. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Lit., x. (1878), 334. Sombre as the poem at first appears, it works its way on to happy hopes.
1874. L. Stephen, Hours in Library (1892), II. ii. 56. Such sketches are a pleasant relief to his more sombre portraiture.
4. Of colors or coloring: Of a dark shade or tinge; dark, dull.
1805. Wilkes, Mem., II. 175. The olive-tree … is a sombre brown, when one expects a green.
1835. J. Duncan, Beetles (Nat. Lib.), 186. Those [insects] that derive their nourishment from decomposed vegetables are usually of a sombre hue.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxii. 577. Ecclesiastics and persons of gravity affected sombre colours.
b. Of things in respect of color. (Cf. 1.)
1829. Griffith, trans. Cuvier, VIII. 315. Sombre Plover, Charadrius Fuscus.
1839. G. Bird, Nat. Philos., 333. The chloride of silver with which the paper was imbued, becomes of a deep slate colour in the violet, and in the sombre space beyond it.
1851. Brimley, Ess., 158. He had originally a fine sombre complexion.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 152. A sombre garb was worn by the nuns, and coarse cowls by the friars.
5. Comb., as sombre-clad, -colo(u)red, -faced, -minded, sombre-looking adjs.
1850. T. T. Lynch, Theoph. Trinal, v. 85. Dissatisfied, querulous, sombre-minded persons.
1868. Springfield Daily Republican, 25 July, 6/1. ‘I congratulate you.’
‘You needn’t then,’ was the somber-faced reply.
1872. Jenkinson, Guide Eng. Lakes (1879), 337. A wild and sombre-looking mass of rocks and precipices.
1889. S. J. Hickson, Naturalist in N. Celebes, 214. The pious and sombre-clad Christian natives.
1899. Mackail, W. Morris, II. 191. The vast sombre-coloured crowd.
B. sb. Somber character; somberness. rare.
1795. H. M. Williams, Lett. France, I. 164. Fonfrede and Ducos relieved the sombre of the piece by the habitual liveliness of their characters.
1811. Henry & Isabella, I. 285. A deep sombre spread itself over every thing.
