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r flattery; to entice; to insnare; to seduce; to wheedle. Yet have they many baits and guileful spells To inveigle and invite the un unwary sense. Milton.

A tale of sorrow, disappointment, or complaint; a doleful story; a dolorous tirade; -- generally used satirically. He has prolonged his complaint into an endless jeremiad. Lamb.

Mournful; indicating sorrow, often ridiculously or feignedly; doleful; woful; pitiable; as, a whining tone and a lugubrious look. Crossbones, scythes, hourglasses, and other lugubrious emblems of mortality. Hawthorne. -- Lu*gu"bri*ous*ly, adv. -- Lu*gu"bri*ous*ness, n.

procure; to acquire, in any way. Some pray for riches; riches they obtain. Dryden. By guileful fair words peace may be obtained. Shak. It may be that I may obtain children by her. Gen. xvi. 2.

To mutter; as prayers. [The hooded clouds] patter their doleful prayers. Longfellow. To patter flash, to talk in thieves' cant. [Slang]

Having the quality of injuring or killing; destructive; very mischievous; baleful; malicious; wicked. Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar. Shak. Pernicious to his health. Prescott.

On all sides; around. Round he throws his baleful eyes. Milton.

Solemnly devoted, in a bad sense, as to evil, vengeance, curse, or the like; accursed; baleful. [Archaic] But, to destruction sacred and devote. Milton.

in or with a shriek or shrieks. On top whereof aye dwelt the ghostly owl, Shrieking his baleful note. Spenser. She shrieked his name To the dark woods. Moore.

Affecting unfavorably by the supposed influence of the stars; baleful. "Sideral blast." Milton.

Weleful. [Obs.] Chaucer.

In a woeful manner; sorrowfully; mournfully; miserably; dolefully.