Meaning & use
loom
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To appear suddenly as a large, dim, threatening shape, especially through fog or darkness.
Grammar: No object; often followed by out of or over: a ship loomed out of the fog.
Patterns
- loom out of something
- loom over someone
A huge cliff loomed out of the mist.
The tall man loomed over the little boy.
The old castle loomed above the village.
verbintransitivefigurative
To seem very likely to happen soon, in a worrying way.
Grammar: No object; often used with large or ahead: exams loom.
Patterns
- loom ahead
- loom large
Final exams are looming next week.
A budget crisis looms ahead for the city.
The threat of a strike loomed over the talks.
nouncountable
A machine or frame on which thread is woven into cloth.
Grammar: Can be counted: an old wooden loom.
Patterns
- weave something on a loom
She wove the blanket on a wooden loom.
The factory had hundreds of power looms.
Her grandmother still works at a hand loom.
Word forms
| third person singular | looms |
|---|---|
| past tense | loomed |
| past participle | loomed |
| -ing form | looming |
| plural | looms |
Common combinations
- loom large
- The upcoming election looms large in everyone's mind.
- loom ahead
- Deadlines loom ahead and nobody has started.
- loom over
- The mountains loomed over the small town.
- loom out of the fog
- A tanker loomed out of the fog.
- a weaving loom
- A weaving loom stood in the corner of the workshop.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tower
- Tower describes simply being very tall, while loom adds a sense of threat or unclear shape.
- threaten
- Threaten needs a clear danger, whereas loom focuses on something large or near that has not yet arrived.
- impend
- Impend is a formal word for being about to happen, and it has no sense of a visible shape.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: loom or gloom?
loom vs gloom
Gloom means darkness or low spirits, while loom means to appear as a large, threatening shape or to seem about to happen.
Practice
With the final deadline ____, the whole team worked late every night.
Choose one answer.
Looming means approaching in a worrying way. Lingering means staying too long and lumbering means moving heavily, so neither fits a deadline.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “loom”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.