mournful, a. (and n.)
(ˈmɔənfʊl)
[f. mourn v.1 + -ful.]
1. Expressing or betokening mourning or sorrow; doleful, sad, dismal.
Now only of expressions, looks, sounds, scenery; formerly also of costume, etc.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 14 Nor maketh any mournefull chere when he hath lost a frende. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. v. iii. 196–7 No Funerall Rite, nor man in mournfull Weeds: No mournfull Bell shall ring her Buriall. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 244 Is..this the seat That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom For that celestial light? 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 494 A mournful Sound agen the Mother hears. 1747 Carte Hist. Eng. I. 113 The women running about, like furies, in a mournful habit. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 756 Much consoled That here and there some sprigs of mournful mint, Of nightshade, or valerian, grace the well He cultivates. 1850 Dickens Lett. (1880) I. 231 He shook his head with an intensely mournful air. 1883 ‘Ouida’ Wanda I. 2 The scene was bleak and mournful. |
2. Full of, or oppressed with, sorrow or grief; sad, sorrowful, grieving;
† making display of sorrow.
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Nov. 53 Vp then Melpomene thou mournefulst Muse of nyne. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 226 Glosters shew Beguiles him, as the mournefull Crocodile With sorrow snares relenting passengers. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 671 His mournful Mind, with Musick to restore. 1738 Wesley Ps. li. ix, Thou wilt the mournful Spirit chear. 1880 A. B. Todd Circling Year Poet. Wks. (1906) 203 The sweet lambs Call mournful for their mothers. |
| Comb. a 1835 Mrs. Hemans Sicilian Captive Poems (1875) 413 The mournful-sounding seas? |
3. Causing sorrow or grief; deplorable.
| 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. ii. 16 His mournefull death. |
† 4. n. the mournfuls: low spirits, ‘the blues’.
| c 1800 R. Cumberland John De Lancaster (1809) I. 136 You have cured me of the mournfuls. |
5. Mournful Maria (?
obs.)
= Mournful Mary (
b);
Mournful Mary Forces' slang (?
obs.), (
a) a siren; (
b)
spec. the siren used at Dunkirk during the 1914–18 war;
Mournful Monday, 30 Oct. 1899, the day of the British defeat at Nicholson's Nek;
mournful widow (?
obs.)
= mourning-bride.
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 1027/2 Scabiosa atropurpurea, called Mournful Widow in cottage gardens. 1902 Times Hist. War S. Africa II. vi. 256 It is not difficult to point out specific reasons for the failure of ‘Mournful Monday’. 1918 K. MacLeish Let. 6 May in R. D. Paine First Yale Unit (1925) II. 162 The French have installed about six new, loud ‘Mournful Marys’. 1918 in J. McG. Grider War Birds (1926) 185 Everybody knows when to take shelter and Mournful Mary, the siren, goes off automatically ten minutes before. 1920 G. S. Maxwell Motor Launch Patrol ix. 151 Above all the voice of the siren—the famous Mournful Mary—kept up a moaning obbligato. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 160 Mournful Maria, a nickname given to the Dunkirk syren, employed to give warning of enemy air attacks and long range shelling. 1927 E. W. Springs Nocturne Militaire 77 Soon Mournful Mary, the siren in Dunkirk, sounded the All Clear. |