dolorous
/ˈdɒl(ə)rəs
/adjective literary
Feeling or expressing great sorrow or distress: a dolorous and repetitive tale of atrocity...
- Far from being dour and dolorous, one of the clearest fruits of grace is a childlike joy.
- They had heard so very little of this; yet it was enough to build up wretched dolorous dreams upon, there in the shade of the night.
- A gently dolorous Bulgarian folk-tune unfolds as a duet.
Derivatives
dolorously
- A burglar alarm on the house opposite is dolorously winking a tiny white light.
- ‘Don't worry about it,’ he dolorously replies.
- Every time I came, it seemed, I met a lugubrious local figure who shook his head and dolorously announced that the weather had been beautiful until that very morning.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French doleros, from late Latin dolorosus, from Latin dolor 'pain, grief'.