sloom

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /sluːm/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -uːm

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English *sloume, sloumbe, slume, from Old English slūma (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.

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

sloom (plural slooms)

  1. A gentle sleep; slumber.
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English slumen, slummen, from Old English *slūmian (to slumber, sleep gently), from Proto-Germanic *slūm- (to be slack, loose, or limp), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- (limp, flabby).

Alternative forms[edit]

Verb[edit]

sloom (third-person singular simple present slooms, present participle slooming, simple past and past participle sloomed)

  1. (Scotland) To sleep lightly, to doze, to nod; to be half-asleep.
    • 1886, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Squire of Sandal-Side A Pastoral Romance:
      The squire sloomed and slept in his chair; and finally, after a cup of tea, went to bed.
    • a. 1853, Jane Ermina Locke, “Elia”, in The Recalled: In Voices of the Past, and Poems of the Ideal, James Munroe and Company, published 1854, page 193:
      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!
    • 1900, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Maid of Maiden lane, Dodd, Mead and Company, page 181:
      Then the doctor was slooming and nodding, and waking up and saying a word or two, and relapsing again into semi-unconsciousness.
    • 1936, Esmond Quinterley, Ushering Interlude,[1] The Fortune Press, page 66:
      The afternoon sun painted amber patterns on the Turkey red hearthrug: the only splash of colour in the dun room. Potter sloomed in the arms of the chair.
    • 2001, Gemma O'Connor, Walking on Water,[2][3] Berkley Publishing Group (2003), →ISBN, page 205:
      He lay slooming half-asleep, half-awake, thinking about Tuesday afternoon.
  2. To soften or rot with damp. (of plants or soil)
    • a. 1807, unidentified young farmer, letter to his father, printed in Edinburgh Farmers’ Magazine 1807, reprinted in The Farmer’s Register, Volume 7, Number 9 (1839 September 30), page 540:
      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; []
    • 1824 August, “Remarks on Captian Napier's Essay on Store-Farming”, in The Farmer’s Magazine, Volume XXV, Archibald Constable and Company (publishers), page 329:
      [] no other spot over their whole pastured offered as much verdure at this time as these seemingly sloomed places.
    • c. 1854, Alexander J. Main, “Experiments with Special Manures”, in Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, W. Blackwood & Sons (1855), page 17:
      It must be explained, however, that in the latter case the “slooming” of the crop had an injurious effect on its yield; []

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

sloom (comparative slomer, superlative sloomst)

  1. sluggish, lifeless

Inflection[edit]

Inflection of sloom
uninflected sloom
inflected slome
comparative slomer
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial sloom slomer het sloomst
het sloomste
indefinite m./f. sing. slome slomere sloomste
n. sing. sloom slomer sloomste
plural slome slomere sloomste
definite slome slomere sloomste
partitive slooms slomers

Derived terms[edit]