doleful
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdoʊlfəl/
rhymes: -əʊlfəl
Forms: form: more doleful
form: dolefuller
form: dolefuler
form: most doleful
form: dolefullest
form: dolefulest
Etymology: From Middle English doleful, doolful, deolful, equivalent to dole + -ful.
Senses: examples: text: The doleful peal of the bell indicated another funeral was being held.
text: A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, / As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames / No light; but rather darkness visible / Served only to discover sights of woe, / Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace / And rest can never dwell, hope never comes / That comes to all, but torture without end / Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed / With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 61–69:
text: O King this is very doleful. It is told that that traveller came at last to the utter End and there was a mighty gulf, and in the darkness at the bottom of the gulf one small god crept, no bigger than a hare, whose voice came crying in the cold: “I know not.” And beyond the gulf was nought, only the small god crying.
ref: 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 55:
text: “We face a doleful future,” said Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, a former president of the National Academy of Medicine.
ref: 2020 April 18, Donald G. McNeil Jr., “The Coronavirus in America: The Year Ahead”, in New York Times:
synonyms: word: dolesome
word: unhappy
word: cheerless
word: comfortless
word: bleak
word: dark
word: depressing
word: desolate
word: dire
word: disconsolate
word: dismal
word: doleful
word: dolesome
word: drear
word: drearisome
word: dreary
word: dreich
word: forlorn
word: gayless
word: gray
word: gloomsome
word: gloomy
word: grim
word: joyless
word: lack-laughter
word: lugubrious
word: melancholy
word: mirthless
word: miserable
word: no joke
word: saturnine
word: solemn
word: somber
word: sombre
word: spiritless
word: sullen
word: sunless
word: uncheerful
word: uncheery
word: unhappy
word: unmerry
word: wintry
word: woeful
word: atrabiliary
word: atrabilious
word: blitheless
word: dispirited
word: blue
word: bummed out
word: chapfallen
word: cheerless
word: chopfallen
word: crestfallen
word: cut up
word: damp
word: dejected
word: depressed
word: despondent
word: disgruntled
word: disconsolate
word: disheartened
word: dismal
word: doleful
word: dolesome
word: down
word: down in the dumps
word: down in the mouth
word: downcast
word: downhearted
word: downsome
word: dull
word: elegiac
word: elegious
word: forlorn
word: gloomy
word: glum
word: grief-stricken
word: grieving
word: heavy-hearted
word: heartsore
word: heartsick
word: inconsolable
word: infelicitous
word: jawfallen
word: joyless
word: lachrymose
word: lamentful
word: low
word: low-spirited
word: lugubrious
word: lumpish
word: melancholic
word: melancholy
word: miserable
word: moody
word: mopey
word: morose
word: mournful
word: passionate
word: plaintive
word: querulous
word: sad
word: saddened
word: saturnine
word: shattered
word: solemn
word: sombre
word: sorrowful
word: sorrow-ridden
word: sorrowsome
word: spiritless
word: sullen
word: threnetic
word: threnetical
word: triste
word: tristful
word: uncheerful
word: uncheery
word: unconsolable
word: unhappy
word: unlively
word: wistful
word: woe
word: woebegone
word: woeful
word: wretched
glosses: Filled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness.
Derived terms: dolefully
dolefulness