Definition of "melancholy" []

• Sadness or depression of the spirits; gloom: "There is melancholy in the wind and sorrow in the grass” ( Charles Kuralt). (noun)
• Pensive reflection or contemplation. (noun)
• Archaic Black bile. (noun)
• Archaic An emotional state characterized by sullenness and outbreaks of violent anger, believed to arise from black bile. (noun)
• Affected with or marked by depression of the spirits; sad. See Synonyms at sad. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I hate to overuse the word 'melancholy,' but it is at this point."
• "The two sisters and Lord L. were then solicitous to know what was the occasion, which he called melancholy, that had engaged his attendance so many days at Canterbury."
• "He had heard the day before from his friend's aunt, a helpless person to whom telegraphy was difficult and travel inconceivable, and who, in eight pages of unpunctuated eloquence, made over to Dick what she called the melancholy privilege of winding up her nephew's affairs."