Definition of "dismalness" [dis•mal•ness]

• The state or quality of being dismal. (noun)

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• "These attempts at brightness, I'm afraid, only accentuate the dismalness of the hall itself, an ironic testament to its designer, Phillip Johnson, one of the great tastemakers of the 20th century."
• "The sight of a shiny wet road retained its life-long capacity to induce dismalness in Wollheim: "Even today," he writes, "when in actuality the sheen on a bright wet surface has more or less lost its terrors for me, I have only in imagination to take myself back in years, and recall it in the mind's eye, and, in such moments, once again understand the full dismal power that the experience had over me.""
• "SMITH: You know, I sometimes get the feeling that all the darkness and dismalness you write about and we hear in this album, that it's a little bit of a front."