a. [f. F. sombre SOMBRE a. + -OUS. Cf. obs. F. sombreux, Sp. and Pg. sombroso.] Somber; of a somber character or aspect.
1. Of inanimate natural objects and their attributes. Cf. SOMBRE a. 1.
c. 1730. Burt, Lett. N. Scotl. (1822), I. 286. Their … horrid gloom, made yet more sombrous by the shades … they communicate one to another.
1787–9. Wordsw., Evening Walk, 156. Where … the sombrous pine And yew-tree o’er the silver rocks recline.
1803. Forest of Hohenelbe, I. 50. The long sombrous avenue that led to the front of the Castle.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xiv. The fast falling shades of evening were deepened by the sombrous shadow of the immense tree overhead.
1889. P. H. Emerson, Eng. Idyls, 47. Ghostly loomed the baleful wreck and sombrous beacons of the channel.
absol. 1862. D. G. F. Macdonald, Brit. Columbia, 332. The whole territory … is endowed with savage beauty…, and extremely interesting to the lover of the sombrous.
2. a. Of persons, etc. Cf. SOMBRE a. 2.
1792. J. Williams (A. Pasquin), Childr. Thespis, 49. When once in a moon Sombrous John condescends … to glad all his friends.
1799. Mrs. Jane West, Tale of Times, II. 36. Smothered discontent often made him meet … inquiries … with the sombrous brow of sorrow. Ibid. (1802), Infidel Father, I. 136. Though the sombrous air of melancholy never after left his face.
1834. Campbell, Life Mrs. Siddons, II. viii. 200. Kemble, [acting] on this occasion, was uncommonly sombrous.
b. Of thoughts, feelings, etc. Cf. SOMBRE a. 2 b.
1751. Warburton, Pope’s Wks., III. 190. A poor despicable superstition, a low sombrous passion.
1771–2. Ess. fr. Batchelor (1773), I. 239. His dull sombrous imagination rendered him incapable of varying his ideas on any subject.
1817. J. Evans, Excurs. Windsor, etc. 373. Under these sombrous feelings, even at this early period of life [etc.].
1834. Campbell, Life Mrs. Siddons, II. iii. 78. A serious temper, somewhat inclined to be sombrous.
3. Of abstract ideas, conditions, etc.
1750. Warburton, Doct. Grace, I. Wks. 1811, VIII. 293. A sparkling luxuriancy of thought, and a sombrous rankness of expression.
1778. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, III. xxvii. 150. A certain uniform strain of sombrous gravity.
1795. Southey, To Lycon. The venom’d juice will … Lull reason’s powers to sombrous sleep.
1820. Ann. Reg., II. 724. The future for Spain appears again under a sombrous and disturbed aspect.
4. Of colors or coloring. Also transf. Cf. SOMBRE a. 4.
1792. S. Rogers, Pleas. Mem., II. 167. Time’s sombrous touches soon correct the piece.
1797. T. Park, Sonn., 95. Let him in sombrous colours paint her lot.
1802. Mrs. J. West, Infidel Father, I. p. iii. The episodical characters have a use besides relieving the sombrous hue of the principal personages.
b. = SOMBRE a. 4 b.
1799. Mrs. J. West, Tale of Times, I. 212. The messenger … found the castle attired in the most sombrous weeds of woe.
5. Comb., as sombrous-looking adj.
1802. Mrs. J. West, Infidel Father, II. 302. The Hymeneal Vulcan sometimes sees as sombrous looking suppliants approach his altar.
Hence Sombrously adv.; Sombrousness.
1796. Mod. Gulliver’s Trav., 129. He looked very sombrously.
1796. A. Pasquin, Mem. Royal Academicians, 101. We might imagine from the sombrousness of his tints, that he was a monopoliser of brick dust and red oker.
1847. Webster, Sombrously, gloomily. Sombrousness, state of being sombrous.
