sloom

noun
/sluːm/

Etymology

From Middle English *sloume, sloumbe, slume, from Old English sluma (“sleep, slumber”), from Proto-Germanic *slūm- (“to be slack, loose, or limp”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- (“limp, flabby”). Compare slumber and Dutch sloom.

  1. derived from *(s)lew-
  2. inherited from *slūm-
  3. inherited from sluma
  4. inherited from *sloume

Definitions

  1. A gentle sleep

    A gentle sleep; slumber.

  2. To sleep lightly, to doze, to nod

    To sleep lightly, to doze, to nod; to be half-asleep.

    • The squire sloomed and slept in his chair; and finally, after a cup of tea, went to bed.
    • To his castle’s portal, / At the morning gloaming, / Bore they all the mortal / From the battle’s foaming, / Of the white bannered warrior knight, / Cold in his armor slooming!
    • Then the doctor was slooming and nodding, and waking up and saying a word or two, and relapsing again into semi-unconsciousness.
  3. To soften or rot with damp. (of plants or soil)

    • He adds, that one hundred bolls, or fifty quarters of wheat may be thrashed in a day of eight hours, unless the grain has been sloomed or mildewed; […]
    • […] no other spot over their whole pastured offered as much verdure at this time as these seemingly sloomed places.
    • It must be explained, however, that in the latter case the “slooming” of the crop had an injurious effect on its yield; […]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for sloom. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA