Melancholy \Mel"an*chol*y\, n. [OE. melancolie, F.
   m['e]lancolie, L. melancholia, fr. Gr. ?; me`las, me`lanos,
   black + ? gall, bile. See {Malice}, and 1st {Gall}.]
   
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   1. Depression of spirits; a gloomy state continuing a
      considerable time; deep dejection; gloominess. --Shak.
      
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   2. Great and continued depression of spirits, amounting to
      mental unsoundness; melancholia.
      
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   3. Pensive maditation; serious thoughtfulness. [Obs.] "Hail,
      divinest Melancholy !" --Milton.
      
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   4. Ill nature. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
      
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Melancholy \Mel"an*chol*y\, a.
   1. Depressed in spirits; dejected; gloomy dismal. --Shak.
      
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   2. Producing great evil and grief; causing dejection;
      calamitous; afflictive; as, a melancholy event.
      
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   3. Somewhat deranged in mind; having the jugment impaired.
      [Obs.] --Bp. Reynolds.
      
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   4. Favorable to meditation; somber.
      
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            A pretty, melancholy seat, well wooded and watered.
                                                  --Evelin.
      
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   Syn: Gloomy; sad; dispirited; low-spirited; downhearted;
        unhappy; hypochondriac; disconsolate; heavy, doleful;
        dismal; calamitous; afflictive.
        
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melancholy
     adj : characterized by or causing or expressing sadness; "growing
           more melancholy every hour"; "her melancholic smile";
           "we acquainted him with the melancholy truth" [syn: {melancholic}]
     n 1: a feeling of thoughtful sadness
     2: a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed
     3: a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys
        or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy [syn: {black  bile}]

193 Moby Thesaurus words for "melancholy":
   absorption, abstraction, aching heart, agony, agony of mind,
   anguish, atrabiliar, atrabilious, bale, beetle-browed, bitterness,
   black, black-browed, blase, bleeding heart, blue, blues, boredness,
   boredom, bouderie, broken heart, brown study, cheerless,
   cheerlessness, close study, concentration, contemplativeness,
   crestfallen, crushing, dark, deep thought, dejected, dejectedness,
   dejection, depressed, depressing, depression, depth of misery,
   desolation, despair, desperation, despondency, despondent,
   discomposing, disconsolate, disconsolateness, dismal, dispirited,
   dispiritedness, disquieting, disturbing, doleful, dolor, dolorous,
   dour, downcast, downhearted, downheartedness, dreary, dumpish,
   dumpishness, dumps, engrossment, ennui, extremity, fed-up,
   fed-upness, forlorn, frowning, funereal, funky, gentle melancholy,
   gloom, gloominess, gloomy, glowering, glum, glumness,
   good and tired, grief, grim, grimness, grum, grumness, heartache,
   heartbroken, heavy heart, heavyhearted, heavyheartedness,
   infelicity, irked, jaded, jadedness, joyless, lachrymose,
   lamentable, life-weariness, life-weary, low, low-spirited,
   lowering, lugubrious, lugubriousness, melancholia, melancholic,
   melancholiness, miserable, miserableness, misery, moanful,
   moodiness, moodish, moodishness, moody, mopey, moping, mopish,
   mopishness, morose, moroseness, mournful, mournfulness, mumpish,
   musing, pensive, pensiveness, perturbing, plaintive, preoccupation,
   profound thought, prostration, reflective, reflectiveness, reverie,
   romantic melancholy, rueful, sad, saddened, saddening, sadness,
   satiated, satiation, satiety, scowling, sick, sick of, somber,
   sombrous, sorrow, sorrowful, sorrowfulness, sorry, speculativeness,
   spleen, splenetic, study, suicidal despair, sulkiness, sulky,
   sullen, sullenness, surliness, surly, taedium vitae, tedium,
   thoughtful, thoughtfulness, tired, tired of, tired of living,
   tired to death, tiredness, triste, tristful, tristfulness,
   unhappiness, unhappy, wailful, wearied, weariful, wearifulness,
   weariness, weary, weary unto death, wistful, wistfulness, woe,
   woebegone, woeful, woefulness, world-weariness, world-weary,
   wretchedness