Dictionary

doleful en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈdoʊlfəl/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. Filled with grief, mournful, bringing feelings of sadness.
   • The doleful peal of the bell indicated another funeral was being held.
   • 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. 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:
   • 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. 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 55:
   • “We face a doleful future,” said Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, a former president of the National Academy of Medicine. 2020 April 18, Donald G. McNeil Jr., “The Coronavirus in America: The Year Ahead”, in New York Times:
   • A doleful expression that tugged at my heartstrings.

Forms

Deriveds

dolefulness · dolefully

Synonyms

woeful · gloomy · downsome · bummed out · woeful · threnetical · ruthful · unconsolable · sorrowsome · sorrowful · unhappy · disconsolate · sullen · down in the dumps · melancholy · drearisome · dolesome · sunless · wistful · doleful · depressing · melancholic · sombre · low-spirited · tristful · atrabilious · gloomsome · dark · somber · plaintive · disheartened · mopey · atrabiliary · dismal · unlively · joyless · morose · blitheless · lumpish · unhappy · blue · grim · grieving · sorrow-ridden · despondent · comfortless · unhappy · cheerless · dolesome · grief-stricken · heartsore · morose · heartsick · unmerry · threnetic · jawfallen · dejected · crestfallen · gray · downhearted · dreary · disconsolate · dire · down · low · lugubrious · miserable · shattered · down in the mouth · Plutonic · glum · heavy-hearted · miserable · lamentful · solemn · wintry · uncheery · dismal · damp · bleak · forlorn · uncheerful · saturnine · woe · downcast · passionate · doleful · depressed · Plutonian · cut up · desolate · infelicitous · melancholy · solemn · uncheery · dolesome · dull · sullen · elegious · elegiac · lack-laughter · spiritless · saturnine · joyless · chopfallen · dreich · chapfallen · inconsolable · forlorn · mournful · no joke · dispirited · moody · gayless · saddened · sad · wretched · disgruntled · drear · cheerless · spiritless · uncheerful · triste · lachrymose · gloomy · lugubrious · querulous · mirthless · sombre · woebegone

Translations (16)

mi whakapōuri (evoking sadness) · es cabizbajo (evoking sadness) · bg печален (evoking sadness) · de traurig (evoking sadness) · ru жа́лобный (evoking sadness) · es lúgubre (evoking sadness) · ga acaointeach (evoking sadness) · fur dolorôs (evoking sadness) · ru ско́рбный (evoking sadness) · de trübselig (evoking sadness) · bn দুঃখজনক (evoking sadness) · bn বিষাদময় (evoking sadness) · de trübsinnig (evoking sadness) · es triste (evoking sadness) · bg скръбен (evoking sadness) · gd brònach (evoking sadness)