What's the difference between drab and sombre?

Drab


Definition:

  • (n.) A low, sluttish woman.
  • (n.) A lewd wench; a strumpet.
  • (n.) A wooden box, used in salt works for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.
  • (v. i.) To associate with strumpets; to wench.
  • (n.) A kind of thick woolen cloth of a dun, or dull brownish yellow, or dull gray, color; -- called also drabcloth.
  • (n.) A dull brownish yellow or dull gray color.
  • (a.) Of a color between gray and brown.
  • (n.) A drab color.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Mendl's candy colours contrast sharply with the gothic garb of our hero's enemies and the greys of the prison uniforms – as well as scenes showing the hotel later, in the 1960s, its opulence lost beneath a drab communist refurb.
  • (2) And it will almost certainly continue arriving in dribs and drabs, based on the Sea Dragon's observations.
  • (3) While Klimt was creating modern art there, Hitler was going to the opera to hear Wagner (conducted by the modernist Gustav Mahler), and soon eking a living painting drab topographic scenes.
  • (4) The most visible sign of this is the arrival each day, when parliament is in session in its lavish, marble-decked halls in the new capital of Naypyidaw , of scores of officers, natty in their freshly pressed olive drab.
  • (5) Here was a woman, "dismal, drab, embarrassing," sodden with "self-pity," who in the Golden Notebook had single-handedly set back the women's movement "a good long way".
  • (6) Inside, photographs of these often drab exteriors are contrasted with the vibrantly colourful images of the interiors.
  • (7) It is incredible the bombers did not have tickets but, regardless, they would not have got through the body searches at the gates.” Pavlovic and his wife, Ljiljana, had been selling scarves outside the arena prior to kick-off but, despite having tickets for the match, ambled down towards McDonald’s where they had parked in Impasse de la Cokerie, a drab cul de sac between characterless office blocks, to meet his cousin and her husband.
  • (8) Second half: Barcelona's players have been ready to start the second half for several minutes, while Inter's are emerging from the tunnel in dribs and drabs.
  • (9) A fter five years in the job of chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw will deliver his final annual general report as head of Ofsted on Thursday morning – possibly to his own regret and almost certainly to the regret of education journalists, for whom life can sometimes be a little drab.
  • (10) Photograph: John Brunton Situated smack on the "strada del vino", it is easy to drive straight past this drab-looking tratttoria.
  • (11) The 6.6-kilobase DNA fragment expressed five polypeptides with molecular masses of 15.5, 5, 18, 90, and 32 kilodaltons encoded by the draA, draB, draC, draD, and draE genes, respectively.
  • (12) On Monday, Gao began the latest phase of her crusade, travelling to a drab five-storey courthouse in western Beijing with about a dozen other relatives to file a lawsuit against Malaysia Airlines before a legal deadline that coincides with the disaster’s two-year anniversary.
  • (13) On the surface, the subject could not have been more drab.
  • (14) Slovakia v Paraguay in Bloem: another drab spectacle with the Slovakians managing to run around aimlessly for 90 minutes.
  • (15) And that's absolutely the right, drab clothing to reach for as the post-Leveson debate enters a new round.
  • (16) Despite all the dribs and drabs of innovation in the ocean of old-media rules, we're beginning to see a kind of ideal on the horizon.
  • (17) Anything positive would stand out against what's been a pretty drab backdrop so far.
  • (18) Yet sometimes a little decay here and there, some graffiti, flyers posted on walls and lampposts, can add liveliness to what would otherwise be a drab urban experience.
  • (19) High up in the National Theatre, Patrick Marber is huddled in the corner of a small, drab room.
  • (20) An AQI reading of 300 blots out the sun, smothering the city in drab uniformity.

Sombre


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make somber, or dark; to make shady.
  • (a.) Dull; dusky; somewhat dark; gloomy; as, a somber forest; a somber house.
  • (a.) Melancholy; sad; grave; depressing; as, a somber person; somber reflections.
  • (n.) Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Photograph: KHIZR KHAN This sombre, serene oasis overlooking the Potomac river might also prove the graveyard of Donald Trump’s ambitions for the US presidency.
  • (2) Seethetree Kingley Vale, Sussex Forget the colours of autumn; this place is sombre in colour and atmosphere but you will be walking among probably the oldest living organisms in Britain.
  • (3) Slowing growth, financial fragility, governments teetering on the brink of insolvency and default, and clear signs of a public backlash against the excesses of the rich and powerful: all have created a sombre backdrop to the invitation-only affair.
  • (4) King gave a sombre assessment of the government's challenge at a press conference to launch the Bank's quarterly inflation report.
  • (5) Top floor: a roomful of sombre youths vying for individual supremacy using some form of networked arcade strategy game that uses collectible cards.
  • (6) In sombre tones he did indeed acknowledge that there are no sunny uplands as we "now face a crisis that is the economic equivalent of war" .
  • (7) In March 1990, in a ceremony in the new Congress building built by Pinochet in his home town of Valparaiso - 80 miles from the capital, Santiago, and intended to remain well out of mind of the real centres of power - a sombre Pinochet handed the presidential sash over to Aylwin.
  • (8) Q has upped his gadget game Facebook Twitter Pinterest The brooding and sombre Skyfall scored a few points for post-modern playfulness via its introductory scene for the new Q, in which Ben Whishaw might as well have offered Bond a couple of Netflix vouchers and a year’s subscription to Cosmopolitan for all the wow factor his proffered “gadgets” achieved.
  • (9) Another report, Sir Derek Wanless's Securing Good Health for the Whole Population (2004), set out the sombre consequences of our slobby habits: life expectancy cut by nine years, increased coronary heart disease and diabetes, and a cost of £8.2bn to the economy.
  • (10) She’s very serious in her style, very well-informed in her style, it won’t be the same as David Cameron,” he said, welcoming the idea of a more sombre tone.
  • (11) In a sombre closing speech, Clegg warned of "a long hard road ahead", and said the economy was "our biggest concern" because "the recovery is fragile".
  • (12) A grand and sombre staircase - dark, looming, pitiless - leads up from the Axes to the exhibits, allowing Libeskind to play one last trick on the visitor by luring him up a final flight that goes nowhere, before his voice gives way to the memoranda of Jewish history.
  • (13) It is now recognized that as much as left ventricular dysfunction these ventricular arrhythmias are of sombre prognosis.
  • (14) South Africans have undergone sombre introspection of late with the economy slowing, unemployment sky highand, worst of all, violent unrest that included the killing of workers at the Lonmin platinum mine in August.
  • (15) Helen Hunt and John Hawkes are deservedly recognised for their fine performances in The Sessions, while Kathryn Bigelow 's sombre, gripping Zero Dark Thirty bags a quartet of nominations, burnishing its credentials as the dark horse of this year's Oscar race.
  • (16) There were reports this morning that Gaga was reluctant to perform after the death of Alexander McQueen last week and had told organisers she would only play a set that was suitably sombre (with images of McQueen projected as a backdrop apparently).
  • (17) In a sombre letter to his youngest child, Mohamed wrote: "Sorry because you were born where free people are behind bars, including your father."
  • (18) Although they may draw images of sombre and disciplined technicians in white coats, labs in the modern industrial context are a nebulous idea.
  • (19) Although relatively rare, stenosis must be diagnosed in view of its sombre spontaneous prognosis (one patient died 3 days after coronary arteriography), of the risk of underestimating its frequency, and of the hazards of selective coronary catheterization in such patients (one of our patients died 15 minutes after coronary exploration).
  • (20) In a sombre ceremony, the eight men were remembered and honoured by name as families and relatives paid their last respects.