Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Dismal \Dis"mal\, a. [Formerly a noun; e. g., ``I trow it was in
   the dismalle.'' Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as
   suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. d[^i]me, tithe, the
   phrase dismal day properly meaning, the day when tithes must
   be paid. See {Dime}.]
   1. Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Obs.]

            An ugly fiend more foul than dismal day. --Spenser.

   2. Gloomy to the eye or ear; sorrowful and depressing to the
      feelings; foreboding; cheerless; dull; dreary; as, a
      dismal outlook; dismal stories; a dismal place.

            Full well the busy whisper, circling round, Convey'd
            the dismal tidings when he frowned.   --Goldsmith.

            A dismal description of an English November.
                                                  --Southey.

   Syn: Dreary; lonesome; gloomy; dark; ominous; ill-boding;
        fatal; doleful; lugubrious; funereal; dolorous;
        calamitous; sorrowful; sad; joyless; melancholy;
        unfortunate; unhappy.

Source : WordNet®

dismal
     adj 1: depressing in character or appearance; "drove through dingy
            streets"; "the dismal prison twilight"- Charles
            Dickens; "drab old buildings"; "a dreary mining town";
            "gloomy tenements"; "sorry routine that follows on the
            heels of death"- B.A.Williams [syn: {dingy}, {drab}, {drear},
             {dreary}, {gloomy}, {sorry}]
     2: causing dejection; "a blue day"; "the dark days of the war";
        "a week of rainy depressing weather"; "a disconsolate
        winter landscape"; "the first dismal dispiriting days of
        November"; "a dark gloomy day"; "grim rainy weather" [syn:
         {blue}, {dark}, {depressing}, {disconsolate}, {dispiriting},
         {gloomy}, {grim}]