cast a pall upon (something)
(redirected from cast a pall upon)cast a pall upon (something)
To cause something to become sad or somber; to darken or tarnish something. A dated variant of "cast a pall on something." The headmaster's sudden death really cast a pall upon the school's graduation ceremony. The economic crash was devastating, casting a pall upon the entire world for years.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
cast a pall upon, to
To spread gloom. A pall was a cloth or cloak thrown over a coffin. By the eighteenth century the term had been transferred to spiritual darkness (“By this dark Pall thrown o’er the silent world,” Edward Young, Night Thoughts, 1742).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer