Loom
Verb
Pronunciation and accent: luːm
Etymology: of uncertain origin
Preterite tense: loomed
Preterite participle: loomed
Present participle: looming
Intransitively: to appear indistinctly, because of distance, obscurity, atmospheric condition, disproportion between the viewer and the object, etc.
It may be approximately translated by vislumbrarse, in Spanish; apparaître indistinctement, in French; apparire indistintamente, in Italian.
The night was dark and overcast, and the outline of the derrick loomed faintly.
Arthur Pier (The triumph)
In the rapid flight of the cars, it was impossible to retain the names of towns and villages; but one magnificent object loomed upon our right, at the distance of a few miles-Windsor Castle, with its princely towers.
Benjamin Silliman (A visit to Europe)
In the afternoon the Persian hills loomed out of the haze, quite close to us really.
Gertrude Bell (The Letters of Gertrude Bell)
That day the rain was ceaseless, and in the driving mists one could see little but low hills looming on the horizon, pine barrens, scrub, and flooded rice-fields.
Isabella L. Bird (Unbeaten Tracks in Japan)
It was a cold winter evening, and the heavy clouds were looming up in broad masses over the troubled sky.
Jane Campbell (Evenings at home)
After ferrying another river at a village from which a steamer plies to Tokiyo, the country became much more pleasing, the rice-fields fewer, the trees, houses, and barns larger, and, in the distance, high hills loomed faintly through the haze.
Isabella L. Bird (Unbeaten Tracks in Japan)
To-day at noon we saw, dimly looming up from the redness of the southern horizon, a low range of hills.
Elisha Kane (Adrift in the Arctic)
Laboriously I crept and scrambled up the slippery side of that miserable hill. From the foot it had not looked far to the summit -perhaps not over one hundred feet- nor yet steep; but with each step forward and each slip back it seemed to grow, until, when half way up I stopped to breathe, it loomed above me like a mountain.
Anna Nicholas (An idyl…)
The night was cloudy and dark, and as we approached the town, the outline of the Capitol was barely discernible, on our left, looming up against the dull heavy sky.
Alexander Mackay (The Western World)
Newton looked in the direction pointed out, and discovered the hull of a vessel looming through the fog.
Frederick Marryat (Newton Forster)
***With an adjective complement:
[…] she saw Mr. Bott looming large before her on the top of the staircase.
Anthony Trollope (Can you forgive her?)
As he spoke, a heavy and dense bank of clouds spread from the northern horizon, and gradually [… covered] the whole sky; the moon disappeared, or shot forth her lustre only at times on the whitening waves: the sea became black, and the land loomed close and high.
James Grant (Adventures of an Aide-de-Camp)
It was too dark by this time for me to discern more than the merest outline of the place. I saw that it was very large, and I noticed that not even one of its hundred windows showed the least glimmer of light. It loomed vast, dark, and silent, as if deserted by every living thing.
Thomas Speight (Under lock and key)
Slowly and cantiously he threaded the tortuous pathway that led to the heart of the hill. He reached the end of it in safety, and the cavern loomed dim and vast before him.
Thomas Speight (Under lock and key)
In the distance the long-sought mountains of Bamangwato at length loomed blue before me.
Roualeyn Gordon-Cumming (…South Africa)
***(Of something mental): metaphorically: to occur indistinctly
Lockhart remits £100 for reviewing; I hope the next will be for Sophia, for cash affairs loom well in the offing.
Walter Scott (The Journal)
Words derived from loom: loom (noun), looming
