The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word LONG
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
L
O
N
G
More clues leading to the result LONG
- Very old pine, something difficult to climb
- See books covering county’s missing years?
- Marathon record broken by Briton at last
- Far from concise record entered by knight
- Dismal, like ever-recurrent problems?
- Like Samson before his distressing experience
- Pine variety spanning great distances
- Lake above country house is effective at a distance
- After many lessons the writer’s touring Rome, somehow remembering way back
- Piece of wood placed around new pine
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Dismal" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case dismal = long.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does LONG mean?
LONG noun- A long vowel.
- A long syllable.
- A note formerly used in music, one half the length of a large, twice that of a breve.
- A long integer variable, twice the size of an int, two or four times the size of a short, and half of a long long.
- An entity with a long position in an asset.
- A long-term investment.
- The long summer vacation at the English universities.
- To take a long position in.
- Having much distance from one terminating point on an object or an area to another terminating point (usually applies to horizontal dimensions; see Usage Notes below).
- Having great duration.
- Seemingly lasting a lot of time, because it is boring or tedious or tiring.
- Not short; tall.
- Possessing or owning stocks, bonds, commodities or other financial instruments with the aim of benefiting of the expected rise in their value.
- Of a fielding position, close to the boundary (or closer to the boundary than the equivalent short position).
- (of a ball or a shot) Landing beyond the baseline, and therefore deemed to be out.
- Occurring or coming after an extended interval; distant in time; far away.
- Over a great distance in space.
- For a particular duration.
- For a long duration.
- To await, aspire, desire greatly (something to occur or to be true)
- To be appropriate to, to pertain or belong to.
- On account of, because of.
- Longitude
- To belong.