Word Direct Answers

What does "melancholy" mean?

Melancholy: Great and continued depression of spirits, amounting to mental unsoundness; melancholia.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Pensive maditation; serious thoughtfulness. [Obs.] "Hail, divinest Melancholy !" Milton.
  2. 3.Ill nature. [Obs.] Chaucer.
  3. 4.Depressed in spirits; dejected; gloomy dismal. Shak.
  4. 5.Producing great evil and grief; causing dejection; calamitous; afflictive; as, a melancholy event.
  5. 6.Somewhat deranged in mind; having the jugment impaired. [Obs.] Bp. Reynolds.
  6. 7.Favorable to meditation; somber. A pretty, melancholy seat, well wooded and watered. Evelin.

Sources