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''loom'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260313192153-00-⌔

loom - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

🖼️ ➺

Noun

loom (plural looms)

• A utensil; tool; a weapon; (usually in compound) an article in general.
  • ✤ *heirloom *, *workloom *
• A frame or machine of wood or other material, in which a weaver forms cloth out of thread; a machine for interweaving yarn or threads into a fabric, as in knitting or lace making.
  • ✤ Hyponyms: autoloom, broadloom, drawloom, handloom, Jacquard loom, power loom, needle loom, satinet loom
  • ✤ Hector, when he sees Andromache overwhelmed with terror, sends her for consolation to the loom and the distaff.¹
• The part of an oar which is between the grip or handle and the blade; the shaft.

Noun

loom (plural looms)

• (dated) loon (bird of order Gaviiformes)

Verb

loom (third-person singular simple present looms, present participle looming, simple past and past participle loomed) (intransitive)

• To appear indistinctly, e.g. when seen on the horizon or through the murk.
  • ✤ The clouds loomed over the mountains.
  • ✤ […] yonder cloud
    That rises upward always higher,
    ⁠And onward drags a labouring breast,
    ⁠And topples round the dreary west,
    A looming bastion fringed with fire.²
• (figurative) To appear in an exaggerated or threatening form; (of a person or thing) to tower; (of an idea) to impressively or intimidatingly occupy the mind; (of an event) to be imminent.
  • ✤ With no extra-time to be played and penalties looming, the Portuguese winger pounced on some hesitant City defending to run on to a Wayne Rooney clearance, round Joe Hart and slot home.³
  • ✤ In the meantime, SWR staff have warned privately that an acute shortage of rolling stock is looming, because the new trains are not ready.⁴
  • ✤ The incident erupted as tensions simmered over Donald Trump’s looming takeover of DC and his administration’s use of force to brutally achieve his anti-migrant agenda.⁵
• (figurative) To rise and to be eminent; to be elevated or ennobled, in a moral sense.
  • ✤ On no occasion does he[Paul] loom so high, and shine so gloriously, as in the context.⁶

Noun

loom (plural looms)

• A distorted appearance of something as seen indistinctly or from afar.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /luːm/
• (US) IPA: /lum/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -uːm
• Homophone: loam (one pronunciation)

Etymology 1

From Middle English lome, from Old English ﹡lōma, ġelōma (“tool, utensil, implement, article of furniture, household effect”) (also as andlōma, andġelōma, andlama (“utensil, instrument, implement, tool, vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic ﹡lōmō, ﹡lamō (“tool, utensil”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Dutch alaam, allaam (“tool, household ware or good, appliance”), from Middle Dutch andlame. Perhaps originally meaning “a thing of frequent use, thing repeatedly needed”, in which case, akin to Old English ġelōme (“often, frequently, continually, repeatedly”), from Proto-Germanic ﹡ga- + ﹡lōmiz, ﹡lōmijaz (“lame, halt”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡lem- (“to break, soften”).

Compare Old High German giluomo, kilōmo (“often, frequently”), Old High German luomen (“to wear out, fatigue”), Old High German ﹡luomī (as in gastluomī (“hospitality”), Old English lama (“lame”). See lame.

Outside Proto-Germanic cognate with Russian ломи́ть (lomítʹ, “to break”), лома́ть (lomátʹ, “to break, to fracture”), ле́мех (lémex, “ploughshare”).

Compare typologically Serbo-Croatian ра́збо̄ј (“loom (weaving frame)”) akin to ра̀збити (“to break, to smash, to crack”).

Etymology 2

Shetland dialect, denoting a diver or guillemot, from Old Norse lómr, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ﹡leh₂- (“to howl”) (expressive root).

Etymology 3

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Old Norse ljóma (“to shine, radiate”).⁷ Alternatively, perhaps related to Saterland Frisian loomje (“to limp, hobble”), German Low German lahmen (“to limp, hobble”), Swedish loma (“to go slowly”), Middle Dutch loemen (“to wreck, spoil”), Middle High German lüemen (“to become weak, limp, tire”); see English lame.

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. January 8, 1751, Samuel Johnson, “The Mischiefs of Total Idleness” in The Rambler ↩

2. 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 24: ↩

3. 2011 August 7, Chris Bevan, “Man City 2 - 3 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

4. 2021 November 3, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Rolling stock concerns as ‘701s’ “not fit for purpose””, in RAIL, number 943, page 21: ↩

5. 2025 August 13, Gabrielle Canon, “Man accused of throwing sandwich at US border agent charged with assault”, in The Guardian ‎${}^{[2]}$: ↩

6. 1822, John M. Mason, The Evangelical Ministry Exemplified in the Apostle Paul: ↩

7. “loom”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. ↩

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