Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Dark; gloomy.
  • adjective Dull or dark in color.
  • adjective Melancholy; dismal.
  • adjective Serious; grave.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Dark; dull; dusky; gloomy: as, a somber hue; somber clouds.
  • Dismal; melancholy; dull: opposed to cheerful.
  • Synonyms Darksome, cloudy, murky.
  • To make somber, dark, or gloomy; shade.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Dull; dusky; somewhat dark; gloomy
  • adjective Melancholy; sad; grave; depressing
  • transitive verb rare To make somber, or dark; to make shady.
  • noun obsolete Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Dark or dreary in character; joyless, and grim.
  • adjective Dark, lacking color or brightness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective lacking brightness or color; dull
  • adjective grave or even gloomy in character

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French sombre, from Old French, from *sombrer, to cast a shadow, from Late Latin subumbrāre, from Latin sub umbrā, in shadow : sub, under; see sub– + umbrā, ablative of umbra, shadow.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French sombre ("shady, gloomy"), from Spanish sombra ("shade, dark part of a picture, also a ghost"), probably from Latin *subumbrare, from sub ("under") + umbra ("shade").

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Examples

  • Keeping his expression somber, he waited for the polite applause to die down.

    Betrayed Robert K. Tanenbaum 2010

  • Keeping his expression somber, he waited for the polite applause to die down.

    Betrayed Robert K. Tanenbaum 2010

  • His voice was warm, but his expression somber, and Riker feared Deanna was probably right about more bad news.

    The Battle of Betazed Charlotte Douglas 2002

  • His voice was warm, but his expression somber, and Riker feared Deanna was probably right about more bad news.

    The Battle of Betazed Charlotte Douglas 2002

  • That was much the same thing Torre told players in what he described as a somber clubhouse once the Dodgers had filed in by mid-afternoon.

    Home - BostonHerald.com 2009

  • That was much the same thing Torre told players in what he described as a somber clubhouse once the Dodgers had filed in by mid-afternoon.

    Newsvine - Get Smarter Here AP Sports Columnist Tim Dahlberg 2009

  • That was much the same thing Torre told players in what he described as a somber clubhouse once the Dodgers had filed in by mid-afternoon.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2009

  • That was much the same thing Torre told players in what he described as a somber clubhouse once the Dodgers had filed in by mid-afternoon.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2009

  • That was much the same thing Torre told players in what he described as a somber clubhouse once the Dodgers had filed in by mid-afternoon.

    Newsvine - Get Smarter Here 2009

  • That was much the same thing Torre told players in what he described as a somber clubhouse once the Dodgers had filed in by mid-afternoon.

    Home - BostonHerald.com 2009

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