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• half mourning
  half mourning

  noun

  a mourning garb less somber than deep mourning, usually following a period of deep mourning.
• half-mourning
  half-mourning

  noun

  dark grey clothes worn by some during a period after full formal mourning

half mourning

American  

noun

1. a mourning garb less somber than deep mourning, usually following a period of deep mourning.

2. the period during which it is worn.

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half-mourning British  

noun

1. dark grey clothes worn by some during a period after full formal mourning

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Etymology

Origin of half mourning

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

half mourning half-mourning

Her husband sits on one end of the frilly sofa, half asleep from the long night, half mourning.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee

"Well," retorted Nora, "we would have been just about going into half mourning, by now, and that's always a cheerful thought."

From Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls by Flower, Jessie Graham [pseud.]

The funeral rites were half festive, half mourning.

From The World and Its People: Book VII Views in Africa by Badlam, Anna B.

And she dresses in half mourning because of her mother's death.

From Janice Day the Young Homemaker by Long, Helen Beecher

The French have three grades of mourning—deep, ordinary, and half mourning.

From Manners and Social Usages by Sherwood, Mrs. John M. E. W.

Perhaps he would slide truffle slices under the skin for poulet en demi-deuil, the rarely seen chicken in half-mourning made famous by Eugènie Brazier, the chef who founded La Mère Brazier.

From New York Times ● Jul. 21, 2020

I had made certain that they would know something of the mysterious ladies in half-mourning; consequently, I was all the more disappointed.

From She and I, Volume 1 by Hutcheson, John C. (John Conroy)

You know they were got for half-mourning because of old Sir George Mildmay's—papa's uncle's—death, and they look quite fresh and nice.

From Robin Redbreast A Story for Girls by Barnes, Robert

Only half-mourning because he only got half the throne.

From Happy Days by Milne, A. A. (Alan Alexander)

And did I not——" then glancing at her half-mourning, "for the widow and the fatherless.

From The Confidence-Man by Melville, Herman