Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Doleful; gloomy; dismal; sorrowful.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Doleful; dismal; gloomy; sorrowful.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective doleful; dismal; gloomy

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Although I agree with Alan Kaufman that for longer works the paper-based book remains a perfectly adequate purveyor of text -- I don't own a Kindle and still can see no reason why I should, given my habits as a reader -- and that Google Books, so far at least, is more annoying than useful, his lament over the demise of "book culture" nevertheless seems excessively dolesome.

    Writing and Publishing 2010

  • Although I agree with Alan Kaufman that for longer works the paper-based book remains a perfectly adequate purveyor of text -- I don't own a Kindle and still can see no reason why I should, given my habits as a reader -- and that Google Books, so far at least, is more annoying than useful, his lament over the demise of "book culture" nevertheless seems excessively dolesome.

    November 2009 2009

  • Although I agree with Alan Kaufman that for longer works the paper-based book remains a perfectly adequate purveyor of text -- I don't own a Kindle and still can see no reason why I should, given my habits as a reader -- and that Google Books, so far at least, is more annoying than useful, his lament over the demise of "book culture" nevertheless seems excessively dolesome.

    The Didactic Embodiment of the Physical Book 2009

  • Therefore will God enlighten and gather and set the kings and nations against him, that both he and his may be buried, and have their dolesome withdrawing-rooms from the world in the sides of the pit's mouth.

    The Riches of Bunyan Jeremiah Rev. Chaplin

  • In this vicinity was passed a dolesome time, the country being wild and rugged, affording handsome scenery under different circumstances, but for us it had no enchantment.

    History of the Eighty-sixth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, during its term of service John R. Kinnear

  • And, to account for the semi-privacy surrounding the little work, must be set forth the dolesome incident of a printing-house fire burning,

    The Square of Sevens An Authoritative Method of Cartomancy with a Prefatory Note Edward Prime-Stevenson 1905

  • But her mother expressed an ardent desire to hear my _vivâ voce_ corroboration of this statement, informing me that she was but a poor weak widow-woman, but that, if it should appear that I was merely the giddy trifler of her daughter's young, artless affections, it would be her dolesome duty to summon instantaneously every male able-bodied inmate of her establishment, and request them to inflict deserved corporal chastisement upon my person!

    Baboo Jabberjee, B.A. F. Anstey 1895

  • Ah! it's a dolesome change from Sir Murray to Sir Brian yonder at the end, and worse still, to your father, as wouldn't put nothing on but a breast-piece and back-piece and

    The Young Castellan A Tale of the English Civil War George Manville Fenn 1870

  • I was thoroughly drenched, but I knew at the outset it would never do to appear to mind such an accident before an "old swamper," like Mr. C--, and therefore joined him in his hearty laugh at the dolesome plight of myself and horse.

    Odd Leaves from the Life of a Louisiana "Swamp Doctor" 1858

  • The dolesome howlings of tie prairie-wolf, and hootings of the midnight owl, borne upon the listening air, kept sad condolence with our musings, and gave increased momentum to the pressure that crushed our spirits.

    ROCKY MOUNTAIN LIFE 1841

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