doleful

English

Etymology

From Middle English doleful, doolful, deolful, equivalent to dole +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdoʊlfəl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: (General American) -oʊlfəl

Adjective

doleful (comparative more doleful or dolefuller or dolefuler, superlative most doleful or dolefullest or dolefulest)

1. Filled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness.

   Synonyms: dolesome, unhappy; see also Thesaurus:cheerless, Thesaurus:sad

   The doleful peal of the bell indicated another funeral was being held.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods‎^[1], London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 55:

     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.

   • 2020 April 18, Donald G. McNeil Jr., “The Coronavirus in America: The Year Ahead”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     “We face a doleful future,” said Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, a former president of the National Academy of Medicine.

Usage notes

The comparative/superlative pair "more doleful / most doleful" is significantly more common than "dolefuller / dolefullest", which is further more common than "dolefuler / dolefulest".

Derived terms

• dolefully
• dolefulness

Translations

evoking sadness

• Bengali: দুঃখজনক (bn) (dukkhojonok), বিষাদময় (biśadomoẏ)
• Bulgarian: скръбен (bg) (skrǎben), печален (bg) (pečalen)
• Friulian: dolorôs
• German: traurig (de), trübsinnig (de)
• Irish: acaointeach
• Maori: whakapōuri
• Russian: ско́рбный (ru) (skórbnyj), жа́лобный (ru) (žálobnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: brònach
• Spanish: triste (es), cabizbajo (es), lúgubre (es)