| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| loom1 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  l m |
| INTRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: loomed, loom·ing, looms
1. To come into view as a massive, distorted, or indistinct image: “I faced the icons that loomed through the veil of incense” (Fergus M. Bordewich, Islands August 1989). See synonyms at appear. 2. To appear to the mind in a magnified and threatening form: “Stalin looms over the whole human tragedy of 1930–1933” (Robert Conquest). 3. To seem imminent; impend: Revolution loomed but the aristocrats paid no heed. | | NOUN: | A distorted, threatening appearance of something, as through fog or darkness. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Perhaps of Scandinavian origin.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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