Sloom
Origin 1
From Middle English *sloume, sloumbe, slume, from Old English slūma ("sleep, slumber"), from Proto-Germanic *slūm- ("to be slack, loose, or limp"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- ("limp, flabby"). Compare slumber and Dutch sloom.
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Origin 2
From Middle English slumen, slummen, from Old English *slūmian ("to slumber, sleep gently"), from Proto-Germanic *slūm- ("to be slack, loose, or limp"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- ("limp, flabby").
Verb
- (Scotland, obsolete) To sleep lightly, to doze, to nod; to be half-asleep.
- 1886, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Squire of Sandal-Side A Pastoral Romance, The squire sloomed and slept in his chair; and finally, after a cup of tea, went to bed.
- a. 1853 Jane Ermina Locke, "Elia", in The Recalled: In Voices of the Past, and Poems of the Ideal, James Munroe and Company (1854), page 193:To his castle’s portal,
At the morning gloaming,
Bore they all the mortal
From the battle’s foaming,
Of the white bannered warrior knight,
Cold in his armor slooming! - 1900, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Maid of Maiden lane, Dodd, Mead and Company, page 181:Then the doctor was slooming and nodding, and waking up and saying a word or two, and relapsing again into semi-unconsciousness.
- 1936, Esmond Quinterley, Ushering Interlude, The Fortune Press, page 66:The afternoon sun painted amber patterns on the Turkey red hearthrug: the only splash of colour in the dun room. Potter sloomed in the arms of the chair.
- 2001, Gemma O'Connor, Walking on Water, Berkley Publishing Group (2003), ISBN 978-0-515-13597-8, page 205:He lay slooming half-asleep, half-awake, thinking about Tuesday afternoon.
- of plants or soil To soften or rot with damp.
- a. 1807 unidentified young farmer, letter to his father, printed in Edinburgh Farmers’ Magazine 1807, reprinted in The Farmer’s Register, Volume 7, Number 9 (1839 September 30), page 540:He adds, that one hundred bolls, or fifty quarters of wheat may be thrashed in a day of eight hours, unless the grain has been sloomed or mildewed; ...
- 1824 August, “Remarks on Captian Napier's Essay on Store-Farmingâ€, in The Farmer’s Magazine, Volume XXV, Archibald Constable and Company (publishers), page 329:... no other spot over their whole pastured offered as much verdure at this time as these seemingly sloomed places.
- circa 1854 Alexander J. Main, “Experiments with Special Manuresâ€, in Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, W. Blackwood & Sons (1855), page 17:It must be explained, however, that in the latter case the “slooming†of the crop had an injurious effect on its yield; ...