dolesome

[dohl-suhm]

adjective

Literary.

1. doleful.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dolesome¹

First recorded in 1525–35; dole ² + -some ¹

Example Sentences

The grandmother took Helene away from the soft lights and flowered carpets of the Sundown House and raised her under the dolesome eyes of a multicolored Virgin Mary, counseling her to be constantly on guard for any sign of her mother’s wild blood.

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Her dolesome death be worse than Jezebel, Whom through an window surely men did thraw; Whose blood did lap the cruel hundis fell, And doggis could her wicked bainis gnaw.

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So cherished, I shall never die— Pray, therefore, spare your dolesome praises, Your elegies and plaintive cries, For I shall fertilize no daisies!

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Ah! it’s a dolesome change from Sir Murray to Sir Brian yonder at the end, and worse still, to your father, as wouldn’t put nothing on but a breast-piece and back-piece and a steel cap.”

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But her mother expressed an ardent desire to hear my vivâ voce corroboration of this statement, informing me that she was but a poor weak widow-woman, but that, if it should appear that I was merely the giddy trifler of her daughter's young, artless affections, it would be her dolesome duty to summon instantaneously every male able-bodied inmate of her establishment, and request them to inflict deserved corporal chastisement upon my person!

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