loom
UK/luːm/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/lʉwm/
loom noun: a utensil; tool; a weapon; (usually in compound) an article in general.
Noun (1)
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.
- January 8, 1751, Samuel Johnson, "The Mischiefs of Total Idleness" in The Rambler
Hector, when he sees Andromache overwhelmed with terror, sends her for consolation to the loom and the distaff.
- January 8, 1751, Samuel Johnson, "The Mischiefs of Total Idleness" in The Rambler
- The part of an oar which is between the grip or handle and the blade; the shaft.
Noun (2)
loom (plural looms)
- loon (bird of order Gaviiformes)
Verb
loom (third-person singular simple present looms, present participle looming, simple past and past participle loomed)
- 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.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 24
- 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.2011 August 7, Chris Bevan, “Man City 2 - 3 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport
- In the meantime, SWR staff have warned privately that an acute shortage of rolling stock is looming, because the new trains are not ready.2021 November 3, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Rolling stock concerns as '701s' "not fit for purpose"”, in RAIL, number 943, page 21
- 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.1822, John M. Mason, The Evangelical Ministry Exemplified in the Apostle Paul
Noun (3)
loom (plural looms)
- A distorted appearance of something as seen indistinctly or from afar.
loom meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
loom in Hindi
- weaving frame
- करघा karghā
loom in Tamil
- weaving frame
- தறி taṟi
loom in Marathi
- weaving frame
- हातमाग hātmāg
loom in Urdu
- weaving frame
- کار گاہ kār gāh
More languagesFewer languages
- loom in Bengali
- তাঁত, মাকু, অস্পষ্টভাবে উদিত হওয়া
- loom in Telugu
- మగ్గము maggamu
- loom in Malayalam
- മഗ്ഗം maggaṁ
- loom in Kannada
- ಕೈಮಗ್ಗ kaimagga
- loom in Punjabi
- ਲੂਮ, ਲੂਮ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
- loom in Gujarati
- લૂમ, લૂમ કરવા માટે, લૂમ કરવા
- loom in Odia
- ତନ୍ତ tanta
- loom in Sanskrit
- तन्त्र tántra, वेमन् véman
- loom in Assamese
- তাঁত tãt
- loom in Nepali
- तान tān
- loom in Arabic
- مِنْسَج minsaj
- loom in Malay
- alat tenun
- loom in Indonesian
- alat tenun, mesin tenun
- loom in Persian
- جولایی
- loom in Thai
- หูก hùuk, กี่ gìi
- loom in Vietnamese
- khung cửi
- loom in Myanmar
- ရက်ကန်းစင် rakkan:cang
Examples of loom in a sentence
- "The throbulator is connected via the tertiary wiring loom."' — "Do what??"
- The United States is in an awkward situation with debt default looming.
- Energy policy will loom large in the policy decisions of the new government.
Forms of loom
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | looms |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | looms |
| present participle | looming |
| past participle | loomed |
| past | loomed |
Origin of loom
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”).
Shetland dialect, denoting a diver or guillemot, from Old Norse lómr, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- (“to howl”) (expressive root).
Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Old Norse ljóma (“to shine, radiate”). 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.
Words formed from loom
Phrases with loom
Words that rhyme with loom
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- gloom
- home
- presume
- whom
- womb
- resume
- tomb
- abloom
- legume
- rheum
- backroom
- boardroom
- combe
- coomb
- entomb
- enwomb
- exhume
- flume
- grume
- kaboom
- Khartoum
- neume
- packing room
- shroom
- sloom
- subsume
- absume
- addoom
- anteroom
- barroom
- bitume
- brume
- chum
- cloom
- cwm
- desume
- fixing room
- foredoom
- fwoom
- glume
- illume
- khoum
- locker room
- raying room
- simoom
- spume
- thoom
- toom
Questions about loom
- What does loom mean?
- Loom means a utensil; tool; a weapon; (usually in compound) an article in general.
- What is loom in Hindi?
- Loom in Hindi is करघा (karghā). See Loom meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is loom?
- Loom can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce loom?
- Loom is pronounced /luːm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of loom?
- The plural of loom is looms.
Words near loom in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: loom (page history and authors); Loom (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); loom (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); loom (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); तन्त्र (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); তাঁত (Assamese) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-loom.ogg.
Cite this entry: “loom.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/loom. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.