Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MEL'AN-CHOL-Y, a.

1. Gloomy; depressed in spirits; dejected; applied to persons. Overwhelming grief has made me melancholy.
2. Dismal; gloomy; habitually dejected; as, a melancholy temper.
3. Calamitous; afflictive; that may or does produce great evil and grief; as, a melancholy event. The melancholy fate of the Albion! The melancholy destruction of Scio and of Missolonghi!