Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Feeling or expressing sorrow or grief; sorrowful.
- adjective Causing or suggesting sadness or melancholy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Sorrowful; oppressed with grief.
- Denoting or expressing mourning or sorrow; exhibiting the appearance of grief: as, mournful music; a mournful aspect.
- Causing sorrow; deplorable; doleful: as, a mournful death.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Full of sorrow; expressing, or intended to express, sorrow; mourning; grieving; sad; also, causing sorrow; saddening; grievous
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Filled with
grief orsadness ; being in a state in which onemourns .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective filled with or evoking sadness
- adjective expressing sorrow
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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They describe in mournful tones the image of the lonely CEO sitting in his office late at night filling out government forms.
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This is a poem describing in mournful fashion the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
Archive 2007-01-01 2007
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This is a poem describing in mournful fashion the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
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The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Stave 1 Marley’s Ghost | Solar Flare: Science Fiction News 2004
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In a few minutes the signs of German havoc would be hidden behind stacks of crockery and household utensils, and some of the pale women we had left in mournful contemplation of the ruins would be bargaining as sharply as ever for a sauce-pan or a butter-tub.
Fighting France 1915
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Profoundly discouraged, we ride on after this in mournful silence.
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He led his victim away in mournful triumph, leaving the girls in a high state of indignation, and with a slight hope that Miss Monteneros might eventually turn out his consoler.
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She sat up, without attempting to read, write, or employ herself, patrolling her chamber in mournful rumination.
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WHEN summoned to tea, Camilla, upon entering the parlour, found Sir Hugh in mournful discourse with Edgar upon the nonappearance of Dr. Orkborne.
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Send for cunning women, that know how to compose mournful ditties, or at least to sing them in mournful tunes and accents, and therefore are made use of at funerals to supply the want of true mourners.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721
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