Search the Dictionary

An elegy or mournful ballad, or the like.

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.

ode (Mus.), that mode, or scale, in which the third and sixth are minor, -- much used for mournful and solemn subjects. -- Minor orders (Eccl.), the rank of persons employed in ecclesiastical offices who are not in holy orders, as doorkeepers, acolytes, etc. -- Minor scale (Mus.) The form of the minor scale is variou…

A low mournful or murmuring sound; -- of things. Rippling waters made a pleasant moan. Byron.

A species of poem of a mournful character, in which a single mourner expresses lamentation; a song for one voice.

ll monument. Also, a tomb, with memorial inscriptions. On your family's old monument Hang mournful epitaphs, and do all rites That appertain unto a burial. Shak.

To utter in a mournful manner or voice. The lovelorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well. Milton.

South. The face lies muffled up within the garment. Addison. He muffled with a cloud his mournful eyes. Dryden. Muffled up in darkness and superstition. Arbuthnot.

st two stanzas of a sonnet, consisting of four verses each; a stanza of eight lines. With mournful melody it continued this octave. Sir P. Sidney. Double octave. (Mus.) See under Double. -- Octave flute (Mus.), a small flute, the tones of which range an octave higher than those of the German or ordinary flute; -- call…

Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament. Chaucer."The Psalmist's mournful plaint." Wordsworth.

Expressive of sorrow or melancholy; mournful; sad. "The most plaintive ditty." Landor. -- Plain"tive*ly, adv. -- Plain"tive*ness, n.

An Irish or Welsh melody for the harp, sometimes of a mournful character.

ngs, and being played with a bow. [Written also rebeck.] Milton. He turn'd his rebec to a mournful note. Drayton.

Causing one to rue or lament; woeful; mournful; sorrowful.

Affected with grief or unhappiness; cast down with affliction; downcast; gloomy; mournful. First were we sad, fearing you would not come; Now sadder, that you come so unprovided. Shak. The angelic guards ascended, mute and sad. Milton.

in horror or anguish. It was the owl that shrieked. Shak. At this she shrieked aloud; the mournful train Echoed her grief. Dryden.

Sorrowful; mournful. [R.] "Sigh-born thoughts." De Quincey.

ed evil, perplexity, or danger. Lest that too heavenly form . . . snare them. Milton. The mournful crocodile With sorrow snares relenting passengers. Shak.

Producing sorrow; exciting grief; mournful; lamentable; grievous; as, a sorrowful accident.

Melancholy; dismal; gloomy; mournful. Spenser. All full of chirking was this sorry place. Chaucer.