Also 7 lome, 7, 8 loam. [Skeat suggests that the original meaning may have been ‘to come slowly (towards),’ and compares EFris. lômen, Sw. dial. loma to move slowly, MHG. luomen to be weary, from luomi slack (related by ablaut to LAME a.). Cf. also loomy (Sc. and north dial.) misty, cloudy (E.D.D.).]
† 1. Of a ship, also of the sea: To move slowly up and down. Obs. rare.
1605. Sir T. Smith’s Voy. Russia, C b. To behold one of the 3. gallant spectacles in the world, A Ship vnder snyle, loming (as they tearme it) indeede like a Lyon pawing with his forfeet.
1667. Colepresse, in Phil. Trans., II. 481. Being in a Calm, that way which the Sea began to Loom or move, the next day the Wind was sure to blow from that point of the Compass towards which the Sea did Loom the day before.
1678. Yng. Man’s Call., 93. This is to him as the due ballast to the ship, which makes the vessel indeed loome somewhat deeper, but keeps it from tossing too lightly upon the uncertain waters.
2. intr. To appear indistinctly; to come into view in an enlarged and indefinite form. Also with up. Often with adj. compl., as to loom large.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vii. 55. Here smokes a Castle, there a City fumes, And here a Ship upon the Ocean looms [orig. Et là flote vne nef sur Neptune irrité].
1658. Phillips, s.v., A Ship Loomes a great or a small sail, a term used in Navigation, and signifieth as much as a Ship seems a great or a little Ship.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), s.v. Looming, She looms large afore the wind. Ibid., II. Mirer, to loom, or appear indistinctly.
1835. Sir J. Ross, Narr. 2nd Voy., vi. 87. We saw the land looming.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxvi. 136. A great ship loomed up out of the fog.
1846. Keble, Lyra Innoc. (1873), 73. The hard stern outlines loom around Of hill by many a frost embrowned.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xv. (1856), 110. Men are magnified to giants, and brigs ‘loom up,’ as the sailors term it, into ships of the line.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xvi. 112. Still the summit loomed above us.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. xiv. A mist through which Mr. Inspector loomed vague and large.
1900. J. G. Frazer, Pausanias, etc. 53. The haze through which the sun’s disc looms red and lurid.
transf. (jocular).
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, v. 37. He understood it was quite a ladies’ affair, and loomed in, dressed up to the nines.
b. fig. and of immaterial things.
1591. Sylvester, Ivry, 180. But, lo My Liege: O Courage! there he comes: What Ray of Honour round about him Looms?
1650. B., Discolliminium, 6. Reasons … which lowme so big in some mens eyes.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 69. Thus loom on my imagination those happier days of our city.
1827. Scott, Jrnl., 7 July. Cash affairs loom well in the offing.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., xxiv. And is it that the haze of grief Makes former gladness loom so great?
1851. H. Mayo, Pop. Superstit., 101. The facts which loom so large in the dawning light.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xviii. 26. Political difficulties … were looming at no great distance.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 42. Shrunk to atom size, That which loomed immense to fancy low before my reason lies.
c. causative., To make to loom or appear unnaturally large. rare.
1817. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 473. It possesses the quality of looming, or magnifying objects,… making the small billets of wood appear as formidable as trees.
