Crossword clues for looming
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mirage \Mi`rage"\, n. [F., fr. mirer to look at carefully, to aim, se mirer to look at one's self in a glass, to reflect, to be reflected, LL. mirare to look at. See Mirror.] An optical effect, sometimes seen on the ocean, but more frequently in deserts, due to total reflection of light at the surface common to two strata of air differently heated. The reflected image is seen, commonly in an inverted position, while the real object may or may not be in sight. When the surface is horizontal, and below the eye, the appearance is that of a sheet of water in which the object is seen reflected; when the reflecting surface is above the eye, the image is seen projected against the sky. The fata Morgana and looming are species of mirage.
By the mirage uplifted the land floats vague in the
ether,
Ships and the shadows of ships hang in the motionless
air.
--Longfellow.
Wiktionary
n. The condition of something that looms or towers. vb. (present participle of loom English)
Wikipedia
Looming is a term found in the study of perception, as it relates directly to psychology. Looming refers to the rapid expansion in the size of any given image. As the image becomes increasingly large on the perceiver's retina, i.e., when an object looms, there is an automatic physiological response to perceive the object as an approaching object or surface, instead of one that is stationary or receding. Evidence indicates that looming perception is not limited to the visual modality, but can occur due to auditory or even tactile stimuli.
There is a different type of mirage that is also described as looming, in which distant objects appear much nearer than they actually are, is explained in the same way as the image of the ship, except that the image is not inverted; the density variations may also act as a magnifying glass.
Looming (English: Creation) is the oldest literary magazine in Estonia.
Usage examples of "looming".
Thoroughly let down, Alec stole a last resentful look at the keep looming over the gorge, then hurried away after the others.
I felt that the way she was talking would give her a liking for me, and I was satisfied that the man who can give birth to amorous desires is easily called upon to gratify them it was the reward I was ardently longing for, and I dared to hope it would be mine, although I could see it only looming in the distance.
He was arguing with a looming black giant who bore an outsized assagai few other men could have lifted.
And he saw something else, dimly through the smoke--a giant black man, looming against the red glare like a black devil stalking out of hell.
Partly in the hope that I could somehow clarify those foggy, clairvoyant perceptions of danger and see exactly what violence lay ahead, and partly because I was determined not to be intimidated by the aura of evil that clung to the big machine, I shrugged off the backpack I had been carrying, unrolled my sleeping bag, and made ready to pass the last hours of the night right there in the faint patchwork of purple-black shadows and ash-gray moonlight, with the wheel looming over me.
He saw Rimmer Dall smile darkly, looming above them both from within a vortex of images.
Drear shadows drooped and thickened above the Pass of Dariel,--that terrific gorge which like a mere thread seems to hang between the toppling frost-bound heights above and the black abysmal depths below,--clouds, fringed ominously with lurid green and white, drifted heavily yet swiftly across the jagged peaks where, looming largely out of the mist, the snow-capped crest of Mount Kazbek rose coldly white against the darkness of the threatening sky.
Father, mother, and all his brethren, except little Katty, were vanished out of it, and as it came looming back to him thus depeopled, its aspect was immeasurably desolate.
Whether he was baring them at his brother, or the loss he could feel looming, Deuce was not sure.
Monstrous fine women they were to be sure, looming up over him in the dimmety light, and two or three of them tall as Grenadiers.
Looming upon him was a man whose face Fant recognized, in the moment of life that remained to him.
Fortunately the sight of Farad looming over him seemed to strike the man mute.
And so Crown Prince Vindax flew on to Ninar Foan, a bleak and forbidding castle looming over a drab town, its rough stone walls swept by the chill winds of the Rand and lit by a reluctant red sun.
The possible need for space flight was, after all, always looming above them, though every Second Foundationer hoped the need would arise only infrequently.
The print shows a big cryptameria tree, Fuji looming behind it, crowned with smoke.