Melancholy

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Melancholy \Mel"an*chol*y\, n. [OE. melancolie, F.
     m['e]lancolie, L. melancholia, fr. Gr. ?; me`las, me`lanos,
     black + ? gall, bile. See {Malice}, and 1st {Gall}.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. Depression of spirits; a gloomy state continuing a
        considerable time; deep dejection; gloominess. --Shak.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Great and continued depression of spirits, amounting to
        mental unsoundness; melancholia.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Pensive maditation; serious thoughtfulness. [Obs.] "Hail,
        divinest Melancholy !" --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Ill nature. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Melancholy \Mel"an*chol*y\, a.
     1. Depressed in spirits; dejected; gloomy dismal. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Producing great evil and grief; causing dejection;
        calamitous; afflictive; as, a melancholy event.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Somewhat deranged in mind; having the jugment impaired.
        [Obs.] --Bp. Reynolds.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Favorable to meditation; somber.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A pretty, melancholy seat, well wooded and watered.
                                                    --Evelin.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Gloomy; sad; dispirited; low-spirited; downhearted;
          unhappy; hypochondriac; disconsolate; heavy, doleful;
          dismal; calamitous; afflictive.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  melancholy
       adj : characterized by or causing or expressing sadness; "growing
             more melancholy every hour"; "her melancholic smile";
             "we acquainted him with the melancholy truth" [syn: {melancholic}]
       n 1: a feeling of thoughtful sadness
       2: a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed
       3: a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys
          or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy [syn: {black
          bile}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  193 Moby Thesaurus words for "melancholy":
     absorption, abstraction, aching heart, agony, agony of mind,
     anguish, atrabiliar, atrabilious, bale, beetle-browed, bitterness,
     black, black-browed, blase, bleeding heart, blue, blues, boredness,
     boredom, bouderie, broken heart, brown study, cheerless,
     cheerlessness, close study, concentration, contemplativeness,
     crestfallen, crushing, dark, deep thought, dejected, dejectedness,
     dejection, depressed, depressing, depression, depth of misery,
     desolation, despair, desperation, despondency, despondent,
     discomposing, disconsolate, disconsolateness, dismal, dispirited,
     dispiritedness, disquieting, disturbing, doleful, dolor, dolorous,
     dour, downcast, downhearted, downheartedness, dreary, dumpish,
     dumpishness, dumps, engrossment, ennui, extremity, fed-up,
     fed-upness, forlorn, frowning, funereal, funky, gentle melancholy,
     gloom, gloominess, gloomy, glowering, glum, glumness,
     good and tired, grief, grim, grimness, grum, grumness, heartache,
     heartbroken, heavy heart, heavyhearted, heavyheartedness,
     infelicity, irked, jaded, jadedness, joyless, lachrymose,
     lamentable, life-weariness, life-weary, low, low-spirited,
     lowering, lugubrious, lugubriousness, melancholia, melancholic,
     melancholiness, miserable, miserableness, misery, moanful,
     moodiness, moodish, moodishness, moody, mopey, moping, mopish,
     mopishness, morose, moroseness, mournful, mournfulness, mumpish,
     musing, pensive, pensiveness, perturbing, plaintive, preoccupation,
     profound thought, prostration, reflective, reflectiveness, reverie,
     romantic melancholy, rueful, sad, saddened, saddening, sadness,
     satiated, satiation, satiety, scowling, sick, sick of, somber,
     sombrous, sorrow, sorrowful, sorrowfulness, sorry, speculativeness,
     spleen, splenetic, study, suicidal despair, sulkiness, sulky,
     sullen, sullenness, surliness, surly, taedium vitae, tedium,
     thoughtful, thoughtfulness, tired, tired of, tired of living,
     tired to death, tiredness, triste, tristful, tristfulness,
     unhappiness, unhappy, wailful, wearied, weariful, wearifulness,
     weariness, weary, weary unto death, wistful, wistfulness, woe,
     woebegone, woeful, woefulness, world-weariness, world-weary,
     wretchedness