SOMBRE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sombre mean? 

• SOMBRE (adjective)
  The adjective SOMBRE has 2 senses:

1. lacking brightness or color; dull

2. grave or even gloomy in character

  Familiarity information: SOMBRE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SOMBRE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking brightness or color; dull

Synonyms:

drab; sober; somber; sombre

Context example:

children in somber brown clothes

Similar:

colorless; colourless (weak in color; not colorful)

Derivation:

sombreness (a state of partial or total darkness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Grave or even gloomy in character

Synonyms:

melancholy; somber; sombre

Context example:

a somber mood

Similar:

cheerless; depressing; uncheerful (causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy)

Derivation:

sombreness (a manner that is serious and solemn)

sombreness (a feeling of melancholy apprehension)

 Context examples 

And now, no more sombre thoughts: chase dull care away, Janet.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There were still several hours of grey daylight and sombre twilight, and he utilised them in chopping an enormous supply of fire-wood.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“This great and sombre stage is set for something more worthy than that,” said he.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Woodston will make but a sombre appearance today.”

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A footman answered our knock, and we were ushered into a large drawing-room with sombre furniture and melancholy curtains.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I remember it as a kind of half chaise-cart, half pianoforte-van, painted of a sombre colour, and drawn by a black horse with a long tail.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My visitor was, indeed, on fire with sombre excitement.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This day, however, he had been sombre and mute, with scarce a word a mile to bestow upon his comrade.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The pines are not tall or luxuriant, but they are sombre and add an air of severity to the scene.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)