doleful
part of speech
adjective (doleful; more doleful, most doleful)
meaning for a pupil
1) Very sad and gloomy, looking or sounding miserable. tree →
2) Causing sadness: «doleful news». tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: A prophet says people will mourn bitterly when their land is taken away, as Micah foretells loss of land through exile. In the primary lessons: A feeling word in stories and poems. It paints sad faces, sad songs and sad sounds. In Alice in Wonderland the Mock Turtle sings in a doleful voice, and in The Wind in the Willows Toad is doleful in prison.
examples
- In that day shall they take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say: 'We are utterly ruined; he changeth the portion of my people; how doth he remove it from me! (Prophets MIC.2.4, JPS 1917) tree →
- The puppy gave me a doleful look. tree →
- The Mock Turtle sang a doleful song. tree →
- Toad sat in his cell looking doleful. tree →
- A doleful bell rang across the valley. tree →
- He told the doleful story of his lost kite. tree →
- The rain made the day feel doleful. tree →
- It was really a doleful garden for a princess. tree →
note
Adverb: dolefully. Similar: mournful, woeful, sorrowful. It sounds a little old-fashioned and literary.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «doleful» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.