[f. LOOM v.2]
1. A seaman’s term for the indistinct and exaggerated appearance or outline of an object when it first comes into view, as the outline of land on the horizon, an object seen through the mist or darkness, etc.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xxvi. We’re very near the land, Captain Wilson; thick as it is, I think I can make out the loom of it. Ibid. (1839), Phant. Ship, xii. I did not see anything but the loom of her hull.
1862. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, li. A dark line, too faint for landsmen’s eyes, far ahead, which changed into a loom of land.
1881. Times, 30 May, 6/4. Suddenly the loom of a rock was seen right ahead.
1889. Doyle, Micah Clarke, 214. Looking back there was nothing but a dim loom to show where we had left the great vessel.
fig. 1870. Lowell, Among My Bks., Ser. I. (1873), 23. No mirage of tradition to give characters and events an imaginative loom.
2. dial. (See quot. and cf. LOON v.2 1.)
1878. Cumbld. Gloss., Loom, the slow and silent motion of the water of a deep pool.
