These words refer to appearances or prospects that are cold, unfriendly or unpromising. Dismal suggests woebegone low spirits: the dismal sobbing of hungry children. Or it may suggest a course of action that portends utterly unfavourable consequences: a chance for survival that was at beast dismal . It can also suggest extremely uncomfortable or unpleasant surroundings: a room so squalidly dismal as to make her faintly sick to her stomach. Grim can be used in the same way as dismal . Once it might have added a note of horror to each of the situations discussed above, but it has been used hyperbolically so often that it may have lost much of its force. Its full seriousness can sometimes be recaptured: the grim efficiency of the firing squad; the grim leer of the psychopath. In more informal uses it has less force than dismal : the grim look the wife gave her husband; an exam that was really grim .

Depressing , which refers to a lowering of the spirits, has also been over-used ?so much so that it can apply very inexactly to any unwelcome situation: a depressing incident on my way to work: depressing weather; a depressing motion picture; her depressing gaiety. A more exact choice of word is often possible.

Cheerless and dour are milder than dismal but still refer to unpleasant appearances. Cheerless most readily suggests a prospect that promises to be drab and unrelieved: a cheerless room that could be brightened considerably with a little effort. Dour most appropriately suggests ill-humour: a dour glance that fully expressed her long-suffering pessimism. In describing a person, cheerless might suggest someone over-solemn: unable to tolerate the cheerless way she lived her life. Dour has a suggestion of sternness and, unlike cheerless , is seldom applied to anything but people or human qualities: A dour look was all the answer I got on how he like the weather; a cheerless day, overcast and drizzling.

Forbidding suggests an ominous appearance that promises to be unfriendly or threatening on closer acquaintance: the dank walls and barred windows of the forbidding castle.