▪ I. doleful, a.1 (and n.)
(ˈdəʊlfʊl)
Also deol-, del(e)-, dul(e)-, dil-, doil-, etc.
[f. dole n.2 + -ful. In ME. found with the variant forms of dole n.2; but doleful has been the standard form since 16th c.]
A. adj. Full of or attended with dole or grief; sorrowful.
1. Fraught with, accompanied by, or causing grief, sorrow, etc.; distressful, gloomy, dreary, dismal.
| c 1275 Lay. 6902 Ac hit was a deolful þing: Þat he ne moste leng beo king. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 237 Þat was a deluol cas. a 1300 Cursor M. 7182 (Gött.) To doleful [v.rr. deleful, deolful] dede þai suld him bring. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. xiii, Lo! hou dilful dethe hase thi Dame dyȝte! c 1435 Torr. Portugal 521 Torrent toke a dulful wey, Downe in a depe valey. c 1440 York Myst. xxvi. 99 Lord, who schall do þat doulfull dede? 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxxi. 23 Scho playit sangis duilfull to heir. 1565 T. Randolph in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. II. 202 The deulfull daye of the buriall of her howsbande. 1568 Tilney Disc. Mariage D vj, The doolefull place, where he lay. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iii. ii. 49 The most dolefullest noyse he ever heard. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 65 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades. 1725 Pope Odyss. xxiii. 349 In the doleful mansions he survey'd His royal mother. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Shaks. Wks. (Bohn) I. 354 Here is..a string of doleful tragedies, merry Italian tales, and Spanish voyages. |
2. Of persons, their state, etc.: Full of pain, grief, or suffering; sorrowful, sad.
| c 1430 Lydg. Thebes iii. (R.) Amphiorax they carry Set in his chaire with a doleful hert. a 1555 Bradford in Coverdale Lett. Mart. (1564) 307 For the doulefull bodies of Gods people to reste in. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. vi. 9 There find the virgin, doolfull, desolate. 1647 Cowley Mistress, Heart fled again iii, The doleful Ariadne so, On the wide shore forsaken stood. 1829 Lytton Devereux ii. ii, Never presume to look doleful again. |
3. Expressing grief, mourning, or suffering.
| c 1275 Lay. 11997 His heorte ne mihte beo sori for þane deolfulle cri. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 6877 Þai sal duleful crying and sorow here. 1393 Gower Conf. III. 291 In dolfull clothes they hem clothe. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 104 In signe of mourning: Women..are cloathed in white, the doleful colour there. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian iii. (1824) 550 She would..look up..with such a doleful expression. 1865 Kingsley Herew. xiii, He went to his business with a doleful face. |
B. n. (pl.) A doleful state. colloq. (Cf. dismals.)
| 1822 E. Nathan Langreath II. 309 You have enough of the dolefuls at Langreath. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal II. viii. 149 We shall be in the dolefuls all the year. |
▪ II. ˈdoleful, a.2 rare.
[f. dole n.3 + -ful.]
Full of ‘dole’, crafty, malicious.
| 1617 Minsheu Ductor, Dolefull or craftie, dolosus. 1880 Muirhead Gaius iii. §207 A depositary..being liable only in so far as he himself has done something doleful [si quid ipse dolo malo fecerit]. |