Doldrums

Definition: Doldrums

Doldrums

Noun

1. A state of inactivity (in business or art etc); "economic growth of less than 1% per year is considered to be economic stagnation".

2. A belt of calms and light winds between the northern and southern trade winds of the Atlantic and Pacific.

Date "doldrums" was first used: 1811. (references)

Domain	Definition
Geography	Zone of calm or light variable winds, in the lower atmospheric layers, situated near the thermal Equator: the zone follows. . . the annual meridional fluctuation of the thermal Equator. Source: European Union. (references)
Literature	Doldrums (The). The name given to that region of the ocean near the equator noted for calms, squalls, and baffling winds, between the N.E. and S.E. tradewinds. "But from the bluff-head, where I watched to-day. I saw her in the doldrums." Byron: The Island, canto ii. stanza 21. In the doldrums. In the dumps. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Science	Region near the equator characterized by low pressure and light shifting winds. See Wind. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Doldrums

Synonyms: stagnancy (n), stagnation (n), the doldrums (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Dejection	Melancholy; sadness; Adjective: il penseroso, melancholia, dismals, blues, lachrymals, mumps, dumps, blue devils, doldrums; vapors, megrims, spleen, horrors, hypochondriasis, pessimism; la maladie sans maladie; despondency, slough of Despond; disconsolateness; Adjective: hope deferred, blank despondency; voiceless woe.
	Melancholy as a gib cat; oppressed with melancholy, a prey to melancholy; downcast, downhearted; down in the mouth, down in one;s luck; heavy-hearted; in the dumps, down in the dumps, in the suds, in the sulks, in the doldrums; in doleful dumps, in bad humor; sullen; mumpish, dumpish, mopish, moping; moody, glum; sulky; (discontented); out of sorts, out of humor, out of heart, out of spirits; ill at ease, low spirited, in low spirits, a cup too low; weary; discouraged, disheartened; desponding; chapfallen, chopfallen, jaw fallen, crest fallen.
Sullenness	Ill temper, bad temper, ill humor, bad humor; sulks, dudgeon, mumps, dumps, doldrums, fit of the sulks, bouderie, black looks, scowl; grouch; huff; (resentment).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Title
Books	Doldrums, The (reference) Economic Doldrums (reference) Taking your meetings out of the doldrums (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	He at once takes a perpendicular drop and lands upon a hard bottom of dull routine and doldrums. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Play	Caption
	Yawn; tired; exhausted; catch flies; divide; doze; drowse; expand; gap; gape; give; nap; part; sleep; snooze; spread; yaw; yawp; apathy; detachment; disgust; distaste; doldrums; dullness; ennui; fatigue; flatness; incuriosity; indifference; irksomeness; j.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Switzerland	Manufacturing: With the Swiss economy having emerged from the doldrums of the 1990's, virtually all sectors of the economy are anticipating respectable earnings and prospects for the near future. (references)
	Sudan	However, the small industrial sector remains in the doldrums, spending for the war continues to preempt other social investments, and Sudan's inadequate and declining infrastructure inhibits economic growth. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Doldrums" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 99.01% of the time. "Doldrums" is used about 101 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (plural)	99.01%	100	32,668
Noun (proper)	0.99%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	101	N/A

Expressions using "doldrums": be in the doldrums ♦ in the doldrums ♦ the doldrums ♦ To be in the doldrums. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "doldrums"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		trishtim (damp, gloom, low spirits, melancholy, misery, mope, sadness), bunacë (calm), brez ekuatorial i bunacës, apati (apathy, listlessness, torpor). (various references)

Arabic		‏حزن (afflict, aggrieve, anger, bale, be sorrowful, be sorry, cloud, crack, darken, depress, depression, distress, gloom, grief, grieve, gripe, heartache, melancholy, pain, sadden, sadness, sadness pain, sorrow), ‏ركود (down, lull, paralysis, recession, slackness, slump, stagnancy, stagnation). (various references)

Bulgarian		стагнация, униние (damp, dejection, despond, despondency, droop, dullness, mopes, sadness), затишие (calm, hush, lull), лошо настроение (grouch, hump, ill humor, ill humour, mumps, pet, petulance, spleen), подтиснато настроение (dejection, hump). (various references)

Czech		rovníkové pásmo tišin. (various references)

Danish		aekvatorialt kalmebaelte (belt of equatorial calms, doldrum belt). (various references)

Dutch		doldrums (belt of equatorial calms, doldrum belt), doldrumgordel (belt of equatorial calms, doldrum belt), equatoriale stiltegordel (belt of equatorial calms, doldrum belt, equatorial calms). (various references)

Farsi		منطقه ارامگان استواءی(جغ.), منطقه رکود, سکوت (Calm, Mum, Reticence, Silence, Still), افسردگی (Dejection, Depression, Freeze, Gloom, Melancholia, Oppression). (various references)

Finnish		päiväntasaajan tyyni vyöhyke (belt of equatorial calms, doldrum belt). (various references)

French		zone des calmes équatoriaux (doldrum belt), pot-au-noir (doldrum belt). (various references)

German		flaute (calm, dead calm, deadness, depression, inactivity, lull, slowness). (various references)

Greek		ζώνη ισημερινών νηνεμιών (belt of equatorial calms, doldrum belt). (various references)

Hebrew		מ�"וכ�"ך (crestfallen, desolate, despondent, down in the mouth, dumpy, gloomy, glum, melancholy, somber), מצב רוח ע�'ום (ill humour). (various references)

Hungarian		nyomott kedélyállapot. (various references)

Italian		depressione (blue, dejection, depression, drop, dumps, fall, hollow, lowness, reduction, sag, trough), zona delle calme equatoriali (belt of equatorial calms, doldrum belt), zona (area, belt, dock, zone), abbattimento (breakdown, dejection, depressiveness, despondency, knocking down, mope). (various references)

Manx		ard ny guinaghyn. (various references)

Pig Latin		oldrumsday

Portuguese		depressão (basin, cavity, chill, crater, damp, dejection, depression, goneness, low-spiritedness, megrims, oppression, prostration, sag, valley), zona das acalmias equatoriais (belt of equatorial calms, doldrum belt), tédio (boredom, ennui, loathing, tedium, tiresomeness, weariness), mal humor, inatividade (idleness, idling, inaction, inactivity, inertness, kaif, kef, keif, kief), inércia (lethargy, lifelessness, passivity, rest, torpidity), calmarias, abatimento (chill, damp, dejection, depression, despondency, discount, drawback, droop, enervation, heaviness, languor, mope, prostration, rebate, reduction, sag, settlement, weekness). (various references)

Romanian		deprimare (blue, dejection, depression, low spirits, lowness, melancholy, the dismals), demoralizare (demoralization, despondency, discouragement), regiune ecuatorialã liniştitã, calmuri ecuatoriale. (various references)

Russian		дурное настроение (black dog, grouch). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		mrtva sezona (off season). (various references)

Spanish		zona de las calmas ecuatoriales, zona de calmas ecuatoriales (belt of equatorial calms, doldrum belt). (various references)

Swedish		stiltjebälten, stiltje (calm, lull), ekvatoriellt svagvindsbälte (belt of equatorial calms, doldrum belt). (various references)

Thai		ความซบเซา. (various references)

Turkish		sıkıntı (adversity, agitation, annoyance, anxiety, bore, boredom, bother, botheration, difficulty, dire straits, discomfort, distress, draft, embarrassment, famine, fear, fret, gloom, gloominess, grayness, greyness, groan, hardship, heebie-jeebies, inconvenience, incubus, infliction, load, megrims, mopes, nuisance, oppression, pill, pip, pressure, rigor, rigour, rock, scrape, Strait, straits, stringency, tedium, the megrims, toil, toils, tribulation, trouble, vexation, weight, willies), okyanusun ekvatora yakın durgun kısımları (the doldrums), kasvet (cheerlessness, depression, dolefulness, dreariness, gloom, gloominess, heaviness, heebie-jeebies, murk, somberness, sombreness, sullenness), hüzün (blues, dole, dolefulness, dreariness, gloom, gloominess, melancholy, ruefulness, sadness, shadow, somberness, sombreness, spleen). (various references)

Ukrainian		депресія (depression). (various references)

Vietnamese		trạng thái bu�"n nản. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Old English	450-1100	dol. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Misspellings
	"Doldrums" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Diddums, dolddrums, doldrum, dolldrum, dolldrums, dolrums, dolsrums, duldrums, dulldrums. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "doldrums" (pronounced dō"ldrumz)
4	-r u m z	angstroms, forums, nostrums, pilgrims, quorums, spectrums, tantrums.
3	-u m z	acronyms, ageratums, albums, algorithms, alums, amalgams, anachronisms, antagonisms, anthems, aphorisms, aquariums, atoms, auditoriums, axioms, bantams, baptisms, blossoms, bottoms, caladiums, chrysanthemums, columns, condominiums, condoms, consortiums, criticisms, curriculums, customs, dirhams, dualisms, ecosystems, emblems, embolisms, enthusiasms, euphemisms, fathoms, fiefdoms, freedoms, geraniums, ginghams, Grahams, gymnasiums, herbariums, honorariums, hoodlums, idioms, isms, items, kingdoms, logarithms, mannerisms, maxims, mechanisms, mediums, memorandums, metabolisms, methodisms, microorganisms, millenniums, minimums, modems, monisms, moratoriums, museums, organisms, orgasms, phantoms, podiums, poems, possums, premiums, problems, puritanisms, ransoms, referendums, rhythms, schisms, sedums, sheikdoms, spasms, stadiums, stratagems, subsystems, surrealisms, symposiums, symptoms, systems, totems, transoms, ultimatums, victims, welcomes, zirconiums.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "d-d-l-m-o-r-s-u"
	-2 letters: dorsum, moulds.
	-3 letters: dorms, doums, drums, duros, lords, lours, modus, molds, mould, rudds, solum, sudor.
	-4 letters: dols, doms, dorm, dors, doum, dour, drum, duds, duos, duro, lord, loud, lour, lums, mods, mold, mols, mors, muds, odds, olds, ouds, ours, rods, roms, rudd, rums, slum, slur, sold, sord, soul, sour, sudd, sumo, surd, udos.
	Words containing the letters "d-d-l-m-o-r-s-u"
	+2 letters: smouldered.
	+4 letters: demodulators.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.