Other forms: looming, looms, loomed
To loom is to appear large and threatening, especially out of mist or darkness. A shape loomed out of the fog. The cliffs loomed above them.
It also works for events: an exam looms, a deadline looming, the threat of redundancy loomed over the office all year. In that use the thing is always unwelcome, which is the whole flavour of the word — nothing pleasant ever looms. Loom large is a fixed phrase meaning to seem important and hard to ignore. And a loom is a completely separate noun: the machine that weaves cloth, which is one of the oldest machines there is.
1verbloomTo appear large and threatening, especially in poor light.
“A tanker loomed out of the fog with no warning.”
synonyms: tower, rear up
2verbunwelcomeOf something unwelcome, to be close and unavoidable.
“The deadline loomed and nothing had been written.”
3nounmachineA machine for weaving cloth.
“There is a hand loom in the corner of the workshop.”
loom is a way of appearing large.
Proto-West Germanic
*lōmō
Old English
*lōma
Middle English
lome<id:tool>
English, today
loom
Built from
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 (“to break”), лома́ть (“to break, to fracture”), ле́мех (“ploughshare”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Ways of Looking, Knitting & Sewing