0 past simple and past participle of loom
1 to appear as a large, often frightening or unclear shape or object:
2 If an unwanted or unpleasant event looms, it seems likely to happen soon and causes worry:
Because a significant portion of the labour force was becoming redundant, pauperization loomed large.
What once loomed large has shrunk in significance.
The more familiar colonial strategy of conquest and plunder always loomed in the background as perhaps an easier option.
With housing in short supply generally, the danger of property speculation loomed large.
Some of them, by the accidents of his reading, loomed out in his fancy disproportionately large by comparison with the rest.
To add to his political troubles, financial bankruptcy loomed.
Later, while tickling her infant, she loomed close to her face and bared her teeth.
Initially the party leaders felt that if day-care expansion was to be given its final go-ahead the costs loomed high.