Definition of "dismal"

Liverpool's efforts thereafter had an air of desperation as their dismal 2012 league form continued.

2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport

So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all. It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.

1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 12, in Mr. Pratt's Patients