mournfuladj.

a1425 Medulla Gram. (Stonyhurst) f. 41 Merosus, mornefol.

c1430 N. Love Mirror Blessed Life (Brasenose e.9) (1908) 167 (MED) He came to his house and fonde there..many wepinge and morneful mynstralcie and othere array for the exequies.

1542 N. Udall tr. Erasmus Apophthegmes f. 14 Nor maketh any mournefull chere when he hath lost a frende.

1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus v. iii. 196 No funerall right, nor man in mourning weede, No mournefull bell shall ring her buriall. View more context for this quotation

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost i. 244 Is..this the seat That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom For that celestial light? View more context for this quotation

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 137 A mournful Sound, agen the Mother hears. View more context for this quotation

1747 T. Carte Gen. Hist. Eng. I. 113 The women running about, like furies, in a mournful habit.

1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 756 Much consoled That here and there some sprigs of mournful mint, Of nightshade, or valerian, grace the well He cultivates.

1850 C. Dickens Let. 9 Dec. (1988) VI. 228 He shook his head with an intensely mournful air.

1861 G. Meredith Evan Harrington III. i. 8 ‘Of course you dance, don't you, Countess?’ Rose enquired... The Countess's head signified: ‘Oh no! quite out of the question’: she held up a little bit of her mournful draperies.

1883 ‘Ouida’ Wanda I. 2 The scene was bleak and mournful.

1902 J. Conrad Heart of Darkness i, in Youth 51 The air..seemed condensed into a mournful gloom.

1962 K. A. Porter Ship of Fools 22 Bébé the bulldog had borne his ordeal with the mournful silence of his heroic breed.

1988 A. Lively Blue Fruit 51 His harmonies were somewhat richer than those I was used to; they had about them something of a dark, mournful humour.

2000 D. McCombs Ultima Thule 7 There comes a sound like the ringing of bells, a mournful, hollow melody.

a1558 G. Cavendish Metrical Visions (1980) 135 Discend from hevyn, O Muse Melpomene, Thou mornful goddesse, with thy sisters all.

1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Nov. 53 Vp then Melpomene thou mournefulst Muse of nyne.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iii. i. 226 Glosters shew Beguiles him, as the mournefull Crocodile With sorrow snares relenting passengers.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 142 His mournful Mind with Musick to restore. View more context for this quotation

1738 J. Wesley Coll. Psalms & Hymns (new ed.) li. ix Thou wilt the mournful Spirit chear.

1790 A. Francis Misc. Poems 26 Come, mournful Muse, and pour the dirge along.

1826 J. F. Cooper Last of Mohicans I. vi. 72 Come, friend, dont be mournful for the colt; 'twas an innocent thing, and had not seen much hardship.

1880 A. B. Todd Circling Year 45 The sweet lambs Call mournful for their mothers.

1905 E. Wharton House of Mirth i. v. 85 He was a mournful dyspeptic, intent on finding out the deleterious ingredients of every dish.

1970 A. K. Armah Fragments ix. 230 Staring at them he wondered immediately why they should look so plainly mournful, like bearers of some bad news.

1996 Guardian 14 Sept. (Jobs & Money section) 10/5 A 100 Kip note showing the mournful King of Laos.

?1570 E. Elviden Pesistratus & Catanea sig. A8 When to brothers did appeare their fathers mourneful death.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) ii. ii. 16 His mournefull death. View more context for this quotation

1636 R. Brathwait (title) Fatall Nvptial or, Mournefull Marriage.

1714 L. Theobald tr. Sophocles Electra 30 Alcmæon..took care to revenge on his treacherous Mother his Father's mournful Death.

1791 G. G. Beekman Let. 25 July in Beekman Mercantile Papers (1956) III. 1006 I have now to acquaint you of the Death of Mrs. Mary Beekman, Widow of my late Brother Gerard William Beekman, which mournful Event took place 4th June last.

1839 E. Bulwer-Lytton Sea-captain iv. i. 81 Grant that you are my son—the unhappy pledge Of a most mournful nuptials.

1885 Dict. National Biogr. II. 263/1 Austin alludes to a mournful event, by which he was unexpectedly called into the country; and..it has been inferred that he had acquired some property by the death of a relative.

1988 R. Holdstock Lavondyss (1990) (BNC) 414 The broken spears and spinning, shattered wheels of chariots whose mournful death had so affected her.

1997 J. Bowker World Relig. 137/2 (caption) Green vestments are for everyday use; white is used for joyful occasions, such as Easter..; purple for mournful ones, such as Good Friday.

1840 L. S. Costello Summer amongst Bocages & Vines II. i. 10 We..found ourselves in a mournful-looking, stony, slovenly square.

1864 G. A. Sala My Diary in Amer. (1865) II. 285 This was one of the lankiest and mournfulest-looking Yankee boys I ever saw.

1964 O. E. Middleton Walk on Beach 37 Upstairs, a mournful-looking cadet is handing out the tattered books.

1985 A. S. Byatt Still Life (1988) (BNC) 80 Mournful-looking groups of tethered, bony horses.

1813 C. Quigley Poems 97 Haste Clio, strike the mournful sounding lyre.

1828 F. D. Hemans Sicilian Captive in Rec. Woman 175 Am I not parted from thy shores by the mournful-sounding sea?

1844 R. S. Nichols Bernice II. 25 'Tis midnight on the starry wave, And on the mournful sounding sea.

1982 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 22 Dec. c16/5 Chang Young Chung on the haegum, a mournful-sounding two-stringed fiddle.

1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 160 Mournful Maria, a nickname given to the Dunkirk syren, employed to give warning of enemy air attacks and long range shelling.

1917 A. A. C. (Royal Navy Anti-aircraft Corps) Aug. 93/2 There is a dear old thing in the nearest town which is locally known as ‘Mournful Mary’.

1918 Duluth (Minnesota) News-Tribune 16 Mar. 2/2 ‘Mournful Mary’ is the soldiers' nickname for the municipal siren that warns the population of Calais that enemy aircraft are approaching.

1918 D. S. Ingalls Jrnl. 4 May in Hero of Angry Sky (2013) 165 Mournful Mary sounded at 10:30 just as I finished my bath, and we heard the motors.

1920 G. S. Maxwell Motor Launch Patrol ix. 151 Above all the voice of the siren—the famous Mournful Mary—kept up a moaning obbligato.

1931 E. W. Springs Rise & Fall of Carol Banks 4 Mournful Mary, the siren, had just advised the two citizens of Dunkirk.

2007 M. Wortman Millionaires' Unit xxii. 223 Lying there his first night back he listened to ‘Mournful Mary’, the gut-piercing, two-note baritone wail that announced each cannon flash of the long-range guns behind German lines.

1902 Times Hist. War S. Afr. II. vi. 256 It is not difficult to point out specific reasons for the failure of ‘Mournful Monday’.

1907 Amer. Hist. Rev. 12 302 The other narratives of..the mournful Monday of Lombard's Kop and Nicholson's Nek..have hardly received full justice at the hands of the able journalists who witnessed them.

1846 C. A. Johns Bot. Rambles ii. 30 ‘Wild Scabious,’ very like a plant that grows in gardens, sometimes called Mournful Widow, only it has lilac flowers, instead of dark purple.

1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. II. 1027/2 Scabiosa atropurpurea, called Mournful Widow in cottage gardens.

1959 R. M. Carleton Index Common Names Herbaceous Plants 84 Mournful widow... Mourning bride: Scabiosa (v).

1963 Oxf. Bk. Garden Flowers 86/2 Scabiosa atropurpurea (Sweet Scabious). The original dull purplish-crimson Scabious..it was often used in funeral wreaths and so was called Mournful Widow.